What to do whilst the forum isn't available or at any time: suggestions box

Here's one to get the brain cells working:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

What definition of sound are you using? The physics one or the psychology one?

What definition of sound are you using? The physics one or the psychology one?

Some very acute original thinking by you there FH.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_a_tree_falls_in_a_forest_and_no_one_is_around_to_hear_it,_does_it_make_a_sound%3F

This is a brilliant answer.

And why have I not heard of dinotracker.com before! (a rhetorical question.) What a site!

"In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain." (Sound - Wikipedia)

I think if its the physics def then the awnser is 'yes'. I thought yes when I first read it and it seemed pretty obvious so I read various articles on sound to know why this is even a question... (spent an hour doing that instead of doing homework.. then another hour on dinotracker.com - anyway)

It's probably using the psychology one. But I don't like that definition..

If I changed the question to: If a deaf person is in a forest and a tree falls, did the tree make sound? - *I* would say that there is still sound (sound happens all the time even if they don't hear it). I don't think anybody claims a deaf persons world is soundless, they just don't process the sounds. 

It's also nearly impossible to clear a forest of all hearing creatures.

And there are sounds that some animals hear that humans cannot. Those sounds still exist though.

I cant think of any reason why it wouldn't make sound (maybe unless the forest is somehow a vacuum).

Also, if I set up a camera in the forest before the tree fell, it would record sound (to be played later/heard later). A camera does not have any ears or brains 

The psych definition should be the definition of processing sound not sound itself (imo)

[I don't know any of this for fact...just my thoughts]

FH said:

What definition of sound are you using? The physics one or the psychology one?

Ugh?