For centuries people have always wondered what goes on when they're not around to witness action or change. One excellent question asked some time ago concerning a tree and well... nothing else has played with our imaginations for years and years. I would love to offer a solution to said question if you would be merely content to reason with what may be considered simple logic. So if you need not trouble yourself with the minor details of life then read no further, forget you ever read this, and carry on with life disregarding this minute detail. However, if tiny intricate details sometimes amuse you or you’re just someone that always wanted to be able to answer this strange little question confidently, then please my dear friends read on and enjoy the proof I have to offer in support of what I believe to be the fully correct answer.
If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and nothing is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If I were to be completely honest with you I would tell you that the first time I heard this question, I was inclined to tell you: Of course. Why wouldn’t the tree make a sound? If it falls, it creates a sound right? But in a world where I need not be one hundred percent honest I’ll go ahead and say I was obviously a genius when I was ten years old and knew that sound, defined by a standard home dictionary, is “The sensation of hearing; also: mechanical energy transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves (Sound waves) (as in air) that is the STIMULUS TO HEARING.” Now, obviously the dictionary does not have caps lock but I do, and I feel it is definitely necessary to emphasize the final portion of the long statement that if read incorrectly could be misconstrued as counterevidence towards the argument I’m about to offer for this unanswered age old question. If sound is in fact the interpretation of an organized mind or animated control center for an auditory device capable of translating vibrations in the air into something of any meaning or importance to something else then no… that stupid tree wasted its time falling when nothing was around to hear it, because all it did was create vibrations, not sound.
Indeed, many of you are most likely saying wow. I may have to read that again. If so, please don’t, because I’ve made it much simpler to understand with a little metaphor. Consider an ear, any ear, any device, natural or artificial that is capable of taking vibrations in the air and recognizing them as a sound. Then picture something that makes a vibration. It could be anything but for the sake of simplicity we will use a guitar string. When the string is plucked it vibrates and makes the air around it vibrate as well. The vibrations travel through the air aimlessly, and until they reach our ear or any other auditory device, by definition that is all they are; vibrations. Yet when the waves reach said device and the device interoperates them as information with the help of a brain then the waves are classified as sound. Thus our metaphor is that of a simple three piece puzzle. One piece is the Vibration, another is an “Ear” and the last is a “Brain.” The completed puzzle is sound but if one of the three pieces is absent then you do not have a completed puzzle do you? So you don’t have sound…
If you disagree then I'm terribly sorry. You can't reason. Don't waste my time telling me and the rest of the world that you're an idiot by arguing with me. The logic is there. The question STATED was answered and different variations of the question may draw different conclusions. In fact, if the word "nothing" was changed to "no person" then it would imply only the absents of people, not necessarily all auditory receivers.
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