# Tree falls in the woods:

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [February 14, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608 "2008-02-14T16:21:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2

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### Author: ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/21 "2008-02-25T02:18:54Z")

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Yes.

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### Author: ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/22 "2008-02-25T16:54:19Z")

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One line that could not get by the Saturday Night Live censors: If Helen Keller falls when alone in the woods, does she make a sound? 😃

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### Author: ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/23 "2008-02-25T17:31:57Z")

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[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]  
It makes the same sound as one hand clapping.  
Don’t get it? Then you haven’t mastered zen.  
[/QUOTE]

No, it [doesn’t.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_049.html)

One’s mastery, understanding, enlightenment or any other descriptor applicable to zen has nothing to do with it.

Don’t get that? Why is a mouse when it spins?

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### Author: ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/24 "2008-02-25T22:12:24Z")

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Higher and fewer!

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### Author: ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/25 "2008-02-25T22:20:15Z")

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[QUOTE=John W. Kennedy]  
Higher and fewer!  
[/QUOTE]

Did you perhaps mean that for the thread about hash brownies?

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### Author: ![ElliottWilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/51bf81/32.png) [@ElliottWilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElliottWilson)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/26 "2008-02-26T05:09:00Z")

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I don’t buy the “makes a sound, but not a noise” explanation. One of the definitions of noise is “sound, or a sound of any kind”. So if noise is sound, and sound is transmitted vibrations, then the falling tree makes a noise too. It’s just more word games.

Now, the tree falling in a vacuum is different. If it falls over and crashes onto the space platform you’ve been growing it on, and you are watching from your shuttle, then no, it probably wouldn’t. But if you were docked to your space platform, you might wonder what that loud noise was.

On the other hand, if your tree strikes the side of that giant bell jar you‘re keeping in the back yard, then yes it probably would make a sound. It would probably sound a lot like my cat scratching on the back door when he’s ready to come in. You know, that nails on a chalkboard sound. I just love that cat.

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### Author: ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/27 "2008-02-26T05:20:35Z")

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[QUOTE=ElliottWilson]  
I don’t buy the “makes a sound, but not a noise” explanation. One of the definitions of noise is “sound, or a sound of any kind”. So if noise is sound, and sound is transmitted vibrations, then the falling tree makes a noise too. It’s just more word games.

Now, the tree falling in a vacuum is different. If it falls over and crashes onto the space platform you’ve been growing it on, and you are watching from your shuttle, then no, it probably wouldn’t. But if you were docked to your space platform, you might wonder what that loud noise was.

On the other hand, if your tree strikes the side of that giant bell jar you‘re keeping in the back yard, then yes it probably would make a sound. It would probably sound a lot like my cat scratching on the back door when he’s ready to come in. You know, that nails on a chalkboard sound. I just love that cat.  
[/QUOTE]

In regard to the vaccum -  
But doesn’t sound just need A medium to travel through (not just air)? If it hit the ground it would probably make it vibrate at least slightly, and I’m sure with the proper instrument (a really sensitive seismograph? A recorder that’s sensitive put to the ground? I don’t know) or maybe even putting your ear to the ground near it, you could possibly hear it. To be honest even if it hit something that somehow didn’t vibrate at ALL the tree probably still would vibrate and make a sound interally.

That or I’m way off-base here.

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### Author: ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/28 "2008-02-27T00:32:03Z")

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[QUOTE=kambuckta]  
And then plummets down to the bottom of the Marianas Trench…for 20 minutes or so.

😃  
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I can be a bit slow sometimes. Are you making a pun on the nautical verb “sound” (to ascertain the depth of water)?

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### Author: ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/29 "2008-02-27T00:45:42Z")

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It’s an old doper joke about visiting the Marianas Trench in the 60’s for 20 minutes. It usually is brought up at some point when a thread becomes silly.

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### Author: ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/30 "2008-02-27T00:58:35Z")

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[Link.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=283407&highlight=marianas+trench)

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### Author: ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-falls-in-the-woods/437608/31 "2008-02-27T20:15:16Z")

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[QUOTE=Inner Stickler]  
[Link.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=283407&highlight=marianas+trench)  
[/QUOTE]

Ah. Remind me not to submit random factoids for no reason. You guys are like piranhas.

Pity. I would’ve liked the pun. If a Piccard sinks 35 thousand feet, does he make a sonde?

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