If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a noise?
Ahhh...this is the classic tree paradox. Give me your thoughts and explanation on either yes or no. Plus, this paradox also applies to ANIMALS not hearing the tree fall as well.
Yes
Side Score: 10
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No
Side Score: 8
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Whether you are there or not, the tree still does something that causes a noise to be made. Where humans are doesn't dictate if anything happens or not. It is like saying that if there were a nuclear bomb exploding, but nobody knew, it didn't happen. Where of course, it did. Side: Yes
Yet if someone were still there then it does not mean that the wood would be completely silent, it just means nobody is around to hear it. The noise may be decoded by the brain but the vibrations do exist. They make contact with your eardrum and then a sequence of complex things occur, but without your eardrum being there the vibrations would still be there, and therefore there would still be sound. Side: Yes
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I do not agree as there are vibrations and they would reach your ears but it's due to damping of the vibrations that it doesn't reach your ears. So it does make noise, it's just that it didn't reach till you. So even if you weren't near the forest and there was no damping then you would hear it considering that sound waves travel in all directions. Side: Yes
Sound is what we hear when the fluid sacs in our ears are compressed by vibrations in the air. Those vibrations are caused by fluctuations of pressure, usually caused by movement. Sound can travel through more mediums than just air, though, but for all debating practicality, it's air. If a tree falls in the forest, causing a ripple of pressure in the air, and no eardrums are around to be compressed by said pressure, there is the no interpretation of such a pressure, and thereby no "sound". Side: No
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