Waves travel through the air but they do not make.

Sep 27, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound?” is a classic philosophical thought experiment.

It is use to raise questions about reality and observation. This question all started from the philosopher George Berkeley in his work called “A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge”.Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins. Many people think sound is a series of vibrations in the air. A tree falling in the forest would create vibrations in the air.

Therefore, it seems logical to say that a tree that falls in the forest makes a sound. Unfortunately, there is a fundamental flaw in this logic. Sit in a completely silent room. Is there a sound? Oct 22, Sound is our brain’s unique ability to recognize different frequencies and interpret them.

So if a tree falls in a forest and there is no one to perceive the vibrations made by the fall, there would be no sound. Got a different perspective? Leave your comments at the bottom of the page. When looking at these questions in a scientific and logical way, the answer to the first is no and the answer to the second is yes.

The first riddle proposes that nobody is around to hear the sound. If nobody is there to hear the sound then the waves the tree creates in the air that could be perceived as sound is never converted into vibrations of the hairs in our ears.

When the tree falls in the forest, sound waves are generated that impinge on your eardrum if you are there. The sound waves are processed by your cochleas and neuronal signals are transmitted to. Jan 22, Conversely, the objectivist would say that the tree exists whether we are there to perceive it or not, and by falling it would indeed give off sound waves--they just wouldn't be interpreted as noise.

I'll leave you with a few questions that you can muse over at your leisure. Do you consider yourself more of a subjectivist or an objectivist, and why? We forage quality sound effects.

If no one is around to see, hear, touch or smell the tree, how could it be said to exist?

"Does it make a sound?" If it does we are recording it. Here at If a Tree Falls our focus is on recording unique and diverse sound effects and delivering these to sound artists and creatives to inspire creativity and sonic exploration. Founded by Rick Blything. Jul 15, The tree still produces sound waves as the kinetic energy disperses. If it doesn't make a sound it either a) is in a vacuum or b) goes against the laws of physics. I repeat, he's a moron (you can quote me on that).