If a tree falls in the forest..

[Palidors]

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

[glee]

Yes

[DrFidelius]

Hold on. My "Zen Enlightenment for Dummies" book isn't in the office. I know that it has the correct answers to all the koans.

[Qwisp]

There are always trolls in the forest to hear it. But I'm sure you knew that.

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I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

[TheIncredibleHolg]

If a man speaks out in the forest and his wife is not around to correct him, is he still wrong?

[WallyM7]

No.
When the tree falls, it produces sound waves, not sound. The waves travel to the inner ear, where the vibrations produce minute electrical signals that are perceived by a brain as sound.

There is no sound without an auditory mechanism present.

Even I knew that.


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If you're an optimist, you haven't been paying attention.

[Satan]

But Wally - Aren't sound waves waves of sound?

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Yer pal,
Satan

[Pickman's Model]

What is the sound of one lung collapsing?

[handy]

Buzzer! InCorrect WallyM7!

A deaf person, say like me?, could not hear the tree fall, but would see it fall, thus, the tree did fall.duh. :-)

[Satan]

Jorge:

Good point! I didn't think of that until you mentioned it!

[kellibelli]

Oh, Oh, I've got one!

How many trolls does it take to clog up a message board?


I hate, really hate to agree with satan, but you're right man...troll.

For a member who lists occupation as oracle, and interests as quantum physics, this guy sure asks stupid questions. Probably in the same afterschool program as Brithael, and Banshee.

[Pete]

Are we assuming that there is nothing else in the universe except this tree?

If so, then it doesn't make a sound. But if there is anything else that hears, then it does.

I suppose I'm just reverberating (haha) what Wally said, but I am adding that other organisms hear.

Also, I fancy that other plants and microorganisms "hear" even though they don't pick up sound waves.

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I don't know who first said "everyone's a critic," but I think it's a really stupid saying.

[DW3]

OK Pile on like the BK commercial.

You would think he would ask questions like "how do you go about proving virtual particles?" or "how do gravitrons attract?" if his interest really is Quantum Physics.

But Jorge said it better than I can :)

[Alphagene]

While we're on the Zen kick, the sound of one hand clapping sounds like this...

[slaps Palidors]

[kellibelli]

Now that is a theory we should all explore...

[slaps Palidors too]

[Markxxx]

Of course it makes a sound. I was born in 1964. To say it didn't make a soung is akin to me saying. Since I wasn't around before 1964 nothing actually happened.

Of course it did. Just because you don't witness it doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

[WallyM7]

Palidors originally listed his occupation as a quantum physicist.

I very politely asked him a physics question, but apparently he is not speaking to me.

I think he felt betrayed when he found out I'm really Elizabeth Taylor.

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If you're an optimist, you haven't been paying attention.

[Ken]

If a tree falls and someone IS around, does it make a sound? Or does that person just imagine a sound because falling trees are supposed to make sounds?

[Brother Haus]

Tree's do not fall, they...

T-I-M-B-E-R!!



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Confusious Say:
-Man who stand on toilet,
Is high on pot-

[Nickrz]

Let's be nice, people. We don't need to toss out the dreaded T-word or hit people just because we don't like their question.

Any question can be new and intriguing to someone who has not heard it before.
------
Nickrz
GQ Mod

[DW3]

If a tree falls on a mime, does it make a sound?

TennHippie (http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000865.html)

[WallyM7]

If the mime is trying to get out of an invisible box, then of course, the tree, being perpend....


Forget it.

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If you're an optimist, you haven't been paying attention.

[Kat]

Any question can be new and intriguing to someone who has not heard it before.

Are you trying to imply there's someone in the universe who hasn't heard this question before?

Trick question. If nobody is around to hear it, or witness it in any way, then it doesn't fall. What happens is that the wave function collapses to the fallen state when the first witness happens by.

[DW3]

You're now stepping into SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT area of philosophy. I guess the OP did that too.

[Hello Again]

it exists only as a cloud of probabilities... no, wait, that's Schroedinger's cat.

blert.

[Hello Again]

dammit, DW3, you got to it first. drat!

[DrFidelius]

What did you do to the cat? It looks half dead...

[Jorge]

[handy]

'Are you trying to imply there's someone in the universe who
hasn't heard this question before?'


Yeah, little deafened me.

On the other hand, anyone know what the sound of one hand clapping is as I can't hear that either.

[Sam Stone]

Okay, for this I'll go back to my university physics days.


First, consider a massless/frictionless tree...

Oh, never mind.

[moriah]

If you close your eyes and I smack you in the back of the head, does it hurt?

[gypsy]

handy, one hand clapping sounds like Van Morrison singing.

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Unforgiven

[Temujin]

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, where are they?

[TheIncredibleHolg]

If a tree falls in the forest, and there's no one around to hear it, then who felled it?

[glee]

I'd like to branch out and see how many of you twig what's going on:

If a tree falls in a vacuum....

[Rasputin]

If I start banging my head against my keyboard, does it make a sound?

66uybdc7g6b 6vbhfhyjuhjy

Anyone hear that? I wonder how it's pronounced...

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"Give a man a match and he'll be warm for an hour... Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

[handy]

gypsy, nope, haven't & probably wouldn't if I could, listened to Morrison.

How about one of the Beatles?

I think the big question should have been changed to 'if you are in the forest & a tree falls on you, do you feel it?'

[Diceman]

If a tree falls on a mime, does he scream?

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"I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms." -The Secret of Monkey Island

[BenDover]

If a mime falls out of a tree in the forest and lands on a deaf person, does anyone hear it?

[DavidForster]

Perhaps we can explicitly state the answer that was apparently being sought, thereby giving the poster what he sought and also exposing it to anyone who might not get it like everyone here obviously does, and then CLOSE this annoying little thread.

The philosophical answer arrived at sometime in the Dark Ages (probably St. Augustine or someone of the sort):

Yes, it makes a sound, 'cuz God heared it.

-------------
And in response to another thread, "Why feed trolls?" - because saying the monster's True Name robs it of its power.

[Brother Haus]

Okay, Rasputin, I'll play along:

--Here I go

uyhuuuhgmh[u6yhggfvrt 67y

I heard it, I heard it. Wooh! Any other takers?

Now, does anyone actually got to the forest to listen for trees to fall?

------------------
Confusious Say:
-Man who stand on toilet,
Is high on pot-

[moriah]

If a freak trolls in a forum, does anyone read it?

[NanoByte]

The answer to the OP as stated, of course, it depends on whether you use the objective or subjective definition of the word 'sound'. A decent dictionary gives both. Not even Physics 101 is required.

But what I wanna know is, when a space probe falls into Mars, do Martians throw it back. . .or do the taxpayers throw out another ball?

Also, when a thread gets totally unraveled, does it wear Nickrz?

When a tree falls into the La Brea Tar Pits, does its hugger get preserved?

Ray (Shshsh! I thought I herd something -- there's a whole wooly flock of 'em going over now. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. 12:29 am PST)

[PatrickM]

On the old TV show "Cheers" the bartender Coach said, "Well, if no one was there, how do you know the tree fell? Maybe some beavers set it down there."

I always liked that answer. :)

If a tree falls in the forest, & lands on C#3, how many posters' hands will you hear clapping?

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We have met the enemy, and He is Us.--Walt Kelly

[tracer]

Ooh! Ooh! Mista Kotta!

I can actually make quite a decent sound by clapping with one hand. (Even better than Bart Simpson could in that miniature golf episode.)

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Visit the Internet Stellar Database at www.stellar-database.com (http://www.stellar-database.com)

[TheRaven]

Somebody tell Jorge to shut the f*** up!

[andros]

Hmmm. I heard that.

I didn't understand it, but I heard it.

-andros-

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"Listen Children Eternal Father Eternally One!" Exceptions? None!
-Doc Bronner

[Jorge]

Nevermore.

[Momotaro]

Define sound. Then can you answer the question.

[moriah]

Define Troll and you don't have to answer.

[neuro-trash grrrl]

If a tree falls on Palidors, does anybody care?

Clue you in on a little secret, Pally. If you know the answer, you've missed the point.

If Palidors and c#3 climb a tree,we'll all be happy

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Pick your neighbors nose-Lenny Bruce.