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Experts "If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Explain."
It's a time-old riddle that supposedly no one knows the answer to. But what if, on a Friday morning, just waking up, someone found the answer? I know, it seems far-fetched that a highschool girl would come up with not only the answer, but a way to defend it... However, I did, and if you'd like to know... here's what I say.
Sound is a type of wave, created by the vibration of objects in the presence of a medium that is later perceived by our ears. Sunlight is also a type of wave, only acting in two different forms and at much higher speeds than sound. Anyway, let's talk about light waves and no one there to see them for a moment.
The Earth we live on rotates around the sun year-round. The sun beats light down on some area of the Earth at all hours of the day. So, even without a living creature to see its rays, the waves are still hitting the surface of the planet and warming it. After all, in the beginning, there was only ground, water, air, and sunlight.
So... If sunlight can continue to be present on our planet without us to see it, and it is a wave, sound should, in theory, be able to exist without our knowing. When volcanoes erupt, or earthquakes shake the soil, they make noise. We know they occurred because of the vibrations they make. And since sound is created because a disturbance caused air or water molecules to vibrate and carry the wave in its path, those make a sound, even if no one is around to catch those waves. The wave still exists.
When a tree falls in Yosemite, even if no animals were there for miles around, it would still make a noise. The moving object, hitting air molecules, would create sound waves. When it hit, the earth would shake and, like an earthquake, the ground would cause the air to vibrate, carrying yet another series of sound waves.
Yes.
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, it WILL make a sound.
-Muted Flame (4-10-09)
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Help me, pl0x?  Saturnalias · Fri Apr 10, 2009 @ 04:29pm · 0 Comments |
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