I'm one of those touchy/feely types that the more techie/scientific types abhor.
It's a bit narcissistic to think that something so apathetic would depend on our presence in order to exist.
I wish this were original but I heard it on the radio, and it reminded me of this thread.
Irrational numbers, like pi, have an infinite number of decimals but are not repeating, so no one has ever seen the entire number. If no one has ever (and can never) see the number, is it really a number? Does it exist?
Do any numbers truly exist? Or are they all constructs?
In the manner the question is asked, yes it does and no it doesn't! It's a matter of interpretation of the question.
As any detection device (eg and ear) moves in sympathy with longitudinal air waves, clearly the sound must exist when it is on its way from the tree to the ear as sound moves relatively slowly in air (roughly 700 miles-per-hour) and takes time to get there. The point here is that sound is not spontaneously created simply because it reaches an ear. If there was no sound when the tree fell, there would be nothing for the ear to hear at a later time.
On the other hand, it could be argued that if there was no ear there was no sound.
Consider this though: Sound-waves inter-react with other matter that can be changed or damaged by that sound-wave. This means that all matter might be considered a means of receiving sound (this includes air molecules) so, if all matter is an 'ear' there will always be sound when there is a sound-generating event and a medium (air for example) to transport it.
If you still doubt the above, what breaks a window when a sonic-boom arrives from a distant super-sonic aircraft if no animal (ear) also hears the sound? Is the proposition that, when not heard by an ear, the window isn't really broken? A sonic-boom is sound and the window certainly heard it!
Obviously then, sound-waves (sound) exists whether heard by an ear or not!
If the tree was in a vacuum and not connected to the Earth then, you could argue, there is no sound but, what does it then crash into when it falls? If it strikes the Earth even if there was a vacuum, sound will then travel through the earth. Further, if the tree's own branches crash together as it falls, even in a vacuum and away from the Earth, there is still sound within the matter of the tree. Sorry about that!
PS
Number irrationality is a quirk of our method of notation, not the number itself.
If we decide to call a flat piece of higly reflective material in a frame a mirror, and record that decision in al the major dictionaries, would you not agree, that a mirror exists, when a flat piece of higly reflective material in a frame exists?
Then why do we need to discuss if sound exists, when
mechanical radiant energy, that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium, exists? That dear philosophers, is how sound is defined by science, according to a leading dictionary (Merriam-Webster). Other dictionaries use different words, but with the same meaning: sound is a set of waves, traveling through a medium. Merriam-Webster also states, that sound causes hearing. It therefore cannot be, that hearing causes sound.
A little kindness can be so valuable, yet costs almost nothing
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Hey... pssst.... that's an l (as in luscious) at the end of my name, not an i My 2 cents. The falling tree or the roar of a totally deaf bear makes the sound even when no one hears it. The physics of making the sound does not change because there is no one there to hear it.
Brandie
If a tree falls and no-one is there to get squashed by it, that's probably for the best!
We cannot write one third completely as a decimal but we can as a fraction. Just because one particular notational system can't entirely describe a number tells us nothing about the number itself just the limitations of that numbering system.
If we have not yet devised a good way to describe certain numbers - so what? Understanding the Universe and all that is in it may take us some time!
what if... a tree falls in the forest and a deaf person sees it...?
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
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