Tree/forest Question...(was Re: Can God...)

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MeB4:
> | If a tree falls in a forrest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

> I
> | have the answer to this one BTW. ;-)
> | 
> | Timothy (christian who knows the True scientific method) Litteral
> 
You:
> I think I remember this one from High School Physics...
> 
> Sound, by definition requires at least a "producer" and a "receiver".
> So, if there was no "receiver" (including tape recorders!), then there
was
> no
> "real" sound.
> 
> I think that's how it went.

Me:
Right, that is the common wrong answer.  If you stick to the layman's
definition, a sound is the thing HEARD.  In the strictest sense of the word
however the air is the receiver. ;-)  In the scientific realm the
compressions and rarefactions occur whether anyone is their to "hear" the
sound wave that is produced by the impact of the tree hitting the Earth. 
The leaves are shaken (hey, another receiver) and the bugs are moved and
the like.  Sound waves mean sound was produced, and received in the air and
energy was transfered. ;-)  That is why *I* say that it does indeed make a
'sound' (generates a wave which can be measured) but that it makes no noise
(that which has NO physical quantity, only psychological).  

I heard the answer you gave when I was in high school and tried to point
out that if a tape recorder could 'receive' the sound and therefore fulfill
the 'definition' then why not the air/trees/bugs?  The question then
becomes that "If a tree falls in a vacuum does it make a sound" and of
course the answer is no, whether anyone tries to 'listen/record' it or not.
  

Now, is the glass half full or half empty?

Timothy (know this one too) Litteral
brotim@gte.net Luke 6:26
I have chat by appointment only
http://members.tripod.com/~trlitteral/