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Monday, August 09, 2004

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Of course it does. Falling trees cause compressions and rarefactions in the surrounding air, thereby creating a phenomenon known as 'sound', utterly independent of the presence of any listener.

Even if we were to accept the premise that a sound is a sound only if it is heard, it is not only living things that 'hear'. The transmission of sound is fundamentally, the transmission of information. That information is transmitted by means of reverberating particles of air, and 'transmits' this information when this causes a 'change' in the state of another independent particle (The quantum state is modified).

Therefore, a falling tree 'transmits' information in the form of vibrating particles, which is received and reflected by the change in quantum state of other 'entities' (the bent grass, the ditch in the ground, the squashed squirrel). Ergo, it is 'heard', and therefore makes a sound


Somebody said that at 10:58 AM

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