Philosophy Deconstructed

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?

This is a question that many great minds have struggled with. Frankly, I have no idea why since the answer is obvious. Yes, obviously it makes a sound. When the tree falls and hits something* the impact creates sound waves which travel through the air. These sound waves exist whether they are perceived by someone or not.

Of course, there are a lot of side issues that need to be addressed. First of all, it makes a big difference whether you use the word "sound" or "noise." From my Google research, when this question is posed the word sound is used about 75 times more often than noise. Noise is different from sound, in that perception is inherent to noise and therefore the answer would be no. Of course, whoever came up with this gem could have been using the word sound colloquially and basically meant noise. Some people on the Internet also seemed to think this was a Zen koan, which also might mean there are translation problems. My guess would be that some stoner came up with it.

Of course, the question might also be a metaphor that is really asking if something happens that nobody is aware of, does it matter?

Personally, I think a better question would be: "If a man posts snarky comments on the Internet and nobody reads them, does it make a blog?"

*Hopefully, the person who came up with this stupid question