In the Forest

If a tree falls down in the Forest and no one is there, does the tree actually make a sound?

How would you answer this age-old question?

Before today, I might have actually considered the possibility that a falling tree actually makes a sound even if there is no one there to hear the tree fall. But after today's lecture on the auditory system, I know have a definitive answer.

When we hear something, our auditory system (through a complex set of mechanisms that I will not explain since I am still learning them before Monday's exam) is actually converting the pressure waves transmitted in the air into sound. In essence, sound is actually how the brain perceives (or makes sense of all the seemingly random air waves traveling the in the world around us). The voices we hair, the leaves rustling, the crashing waves, the loud neighbors-- these are sounds produced by the brain.

So, to get back to the question I presented earlier. If the tree falls down, there will be pressure waves in the air. But will there be sound? Remember, a brain in necessary to produce sound. If no one is there, there is no brain.

As such, the tree will fall in this deserted forest and make no sound.

Enough said.