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Monday, July 26, 2010

If a tree falls in a wood with no one to hear it, will it still make a sound?

This is a pretty well known question that makes you think. In my opinon the tree would make a sound even if there is nobody to hear it. It's like the in the Big Bang. Most people think the Big Bang was silent because they think there is no sound in space. However, there is sound in space because space is not a perfect vacuum. Although it is a bigger and more perfect vacuum than we could ever make here on earth, it is not perfect because it has a thing called plasma. The Big Bang was actually very very loud , but also very very deep. So deep our human ears cannot and would not be able to hear it unless it was raised 50 octaves, which is exactly what astronomer Mark Whittle did. You can now listen to the 100 million year Big Bang in 10 seconds. But, in the 100 million years the Big Bang was happening, no one was there to hear it... Well, at least no one we know that exists right now... so when a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, why shouldn't it make a sound?

2 comments:

  1. Well, to play devil's advocate, if the definition of sound is "the sensation perceived by the sense of hearing" (from Merriam-Webster), and no one hears it, then it isn't "perceived by the sense of hearing", and therefore doesn't make a "sound."

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  2. "If a composition is not performed, it really doesn't exist" --Tim Smith, in The Curious Listener's Guide to Classical Music

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