If a tree falls in the forest,does it make a sound?

[Swede]

A tree falls and creates waves of pressure in the atmosphere. Without ears and brains to convert those waves to sound,what happens?

[achtung_circus]

1. The bunnies hear it. nt

[murray hill farm]

2. yep, bunnies have ears!

Without ears within range to convert the waves of energy to sound...there is no sound. The ear is a wonderous thing..has always amazed me that such a complicated thing could even have evolved.

[Swede]

3. No bunnies around today.

Notice I said brains and ears not human brains and ears.

[achtung_circus]

6. There are always bunnies around.

Don't screw with my world view.

[bonito]

5. well

No the Bunny's sense it, best I can do, but its not sound. they don't know man words or terms.

[kwassa]

4. If it wasn't televised, it didn't happen.

[bonito]

10. Yes

WE can only react to that what is brought before us, that what we really know to be truth. it is there only when we can react, or choose to duck our heads in the sand, only to fool our selves, but not our hearts, and that is our reality.

[Kerrytravelers]

7. There are no bunnies left after * is done wit the environment.

Another question:

If a bomb goes off in Iraq, but we've killed all the Iraqi civilians, does it make a noise?

Answer:

Yes, the Americnas will always be there to hear it.

[uppityperson]

"Sound" is neuroelectrical impulses stimulated by vibration

Therefor, if no neuroelectrical impulses to be stimulated, there is no sound. However, the vibrations caused by the tree moving the air as it falls are still there. So depends on your definition of sound.

What else happens is the tree falls down or not. Depends.

[MichiganVote]

8. Ask Bush. Describes him to a tee.

[swag]

9. Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?

[rurallib]

11. What if it is the last tree left om earth at the end of

smirky's reign of terror?

[uppityperson]

12. If a Bush falls in the forest does it make a sound?

Yes, all the bunnies rush home and clap.

[lastknowngood]

13. The presents of a human neither creates nor destroys

reality, we are not the object of the universe but merely actors in it. To put it bluntly we are not the source but the observer.

[Swede]

14. What about the quantum wave/particle paradox.

Where the act of observing determines whether light is a wave or a particle?

[uppityperson]

15. You don't know until you hear it or don't. But you're not there?

Makes it hard to figure out.

[Swede]

16. Like does the refrigerator light really go out?

nt

[uppityperson]

17. Did the cat hark a furball on the rug or was it just noise

until you step in it or don't?

[Squeegee]

21. The wave/particle duality

Photons (along with all particles) are simultaneously waves and particles in juxtaposition. The problem is that our methods of observing are constrained to either measuring waves or particles, but not wave-particles. If you are looking for waves, you'll find waves. If you are looking for particles, you'll find particles. The act of observing doesn't determine whether light is a particle or a wave because it is already both of those things.

[GodlessBiker]

18. Yeah, Quantum Mechanics disagrees with you on this.

The act of observation does create reality.

[pmbryant]

19. No

That only applies to particles at the quantum level, not macroscopic objects. And observation doesn't "create" reality, even at the quantum level; it merely changes it.

--Peter

[Squeegee]

22. Observation "modifies"

"Observation" it is not a passive thing in quantum mechanics because in order to gather information, you need to modify the energy or state system in someway. Here's a kind of analogy:

You want to "observe" the color of the walls in a darkened room. The easiest way to do this is to turn on the lights. Unfortunately, this will change the initial state of the room because now the walls are bathed in photons, collecting minute amounts of energy, re-radiating some of that energy back at different frequencies, and appearing as color in our eyes. In other words, the room has been modified because it acquired some energy from turning on the lights. If we didn't turn on the lights, the room would be in its original pure state, but then we wouldn't know what color the walls are.

[NationalEnquirer]

20. It eventually dissipates, turning into heat. n/t

[dutchdoctor]

23. Oooh, so that's way cutting forests causes global warming!

Guess we just have to do it very quietly then!