"If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?"

I have been arguing with a few people about this, and my opinion says it does. When it falls, it is still making sound, just because there is no sensory organs interpreting the sound doesn't mean it isn't there.

Sound waves are still being emitted, and sound waves are sound still, so technically there should be sounds made from the falling tree.

If you were to say that it doesn't make sounds then you could use the same instance with saying air exist, you can't feel or see it, so it isn't real. If you were to move your hand thru it, you feel air resistsnce, not air itself.

Therefore, the tree must make a sound.

Any views on this?

[This message has been edited by cronic5 (edited 03-19-2006).]

It's a question of definitions.

either Sound can happen independent of a listener or it can't.
i.e.
is Sound like hearing?
or like talking?

The only thing that you can Really prove.. is that the motion of the tree hitting the ground may make a Sound one day.
because>even though a sound wave may diminish or become so small that we can't hear it, the sound wave does not actually ever disappear, it just continues getting smaller or farther away and somebody, somewhere, might hear that Sound someday, just as we receive light and radio waves emitted years ago by distant stars and other phenomena.

just as our own vibrations and traces will always be retrievable from the cosmos...

Hmmm, good point. But, just for the sake of it, say there is no one around, anywhere, ever. By definition of science, would it still make a sound?

why not?

its not like anything changes just because no ones listening.