• Question: when a tree falls in a forsest dose it make a noise

    Asked by drtrollface to Carol, Ellie, John, Philip, Rebecca on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Carol White

      Carol White answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Some would say that noise is only noise if someone or something is there to hear it….

      But absolutely, it makes a noise.. poor birds in the tree!

    • Photo: Rebecca Lacey

      Rebecca Lacey answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Yes trees falling do make a noise.

      My parents have a forest behind their house and we recently had a big tree fall down (which we heard) – it’s like a really loud creaking/cracking noise.

    • Photo: John Welford

      John Welford answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Trees are pretty heavy, which means that they have a lot of gravitational potential energy. When they fall that energy has to be transferred into some other form. Some of it will be transferred into noise (movement of air molecules), both it cracking and then it landing on stuff!

      It doesn’t matter whether there is anyone there to hear it or not!

    • Photo: Philip Glasson

      Philip Glasson answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      This !!! is the best question EVER !!

      A tree falls, somebody’s there, they here it, then Yes It made a noise !!
      A tree falls, nobodies there, nobodies heard it, did it make a noise ???

      If there is no evidence… we don’t know!!!
      Common sense tells us ” yeah of course it must have made a noise….dosn’t it ??”
      but… really.. we just don’t know.

      NOW! this is where it gets a little crazy….because there are Experiments you can do where the answer you get CHANGES depending on whether your looking/ listening or not looking/listening when you do them
      and these differences in the outcomes of these experiments.. they aren’t small…, they are HUGE difference!

      These experiment have baffles scientist for years !
      And the only answers they have come up with are
      1) The universe is really weird …(don’t ask how it works!)
      Or
      2) There are multiple universe and which one you’re in depends on where you looked or didn’t look.

      So…Does a tree that falls in the forest make a noise when no bodies there?,
      Well…..Depends what universe your in ! 😛

Comments

  • Photo: drtrollface

    drtrollface commented on :

    Thanks Guys, Its been alot of help, my favourite comment is John’s comment due to the fact that i’ve learnt about potential energy.

  • Photo: watsonjc06

    watsonjc06 commented on :

    Philip, would that be quantum physics, that “if no one hears it does it make a noise” comment because it sounds similar to schrodinger’s cat.

  • Photo: John

    John commented on :

    watsonjc06 I think they are similar, but slightly different. The Schrödinger’s cat experiment is about the cat being both dead and alive until it is observed.

    The “tree not making a sound unless someone is there to hear it” is a philosophical question about whether it still counts as sound if no-one hears it.

    If the tree were to fall or not fall, and we assumed it was both fallen and “unfallen” until we went to the forest to see it, then I think it would be the same as the cat experiment!

  • Photo: Philip

    Philip commented on :

    Spot on watsonjc06!
    its is about ” quantum physics”

    Every Thing IS Quantum !!
    but it just doesn’t show it at the large scale .

    So.. Cats don’t appear alive and dead at the same time
    (Schrödinger only gave this example to show how nuts quantum mechanics was)

    But quantum physics gives correct answers to every test we have ever EVER devised to test it. So Its True! small things ARE quantum, but big things (Us, cats, buses) are made out of small things (atoms) Sooo we are quantum Too !! you just cant see it, Why?
    We don’t know, but one explanation is that the different outcomes of quantum physics all happen but in different universes and so you only get to see one of them 🙂