Big joke

[GeSuN]

Is a tree falling in a forest where there's is no one make noise??? How can you prove it if nobody been there before...(that means no mic or anything to record sound... ) ?

Haha

A man is found in a recently burnt forest, with his scuba diving suit on... The closest lake is 10 miles away, so he couldnt walk there... How is this possible??

Dont mind me!

 

[crypticlogin]

<< A man is found in a recently burnt forest, with his scuba diving suit on... The closest lake is 10 miles away, so he couldnt walk there... How is this possible?? >>



This one's an oldie. I'll let someone else tell the tale.

 

[Theslowone]

Need to post these in off topic, not going to go well with mods.

and the thing with the scuba diver was the helicopter picked him up out of a lake dumping water on forest fires.

 

[GeSuN]

-Need to post these in off topic, not going to go well with mods.-

Thats why I said :

Dont mind me!

No seriously, it's more the first one that I want to be resolved. Is there a technical way to prove it???

Oh about the second one, I know its an oldie, but I just wanted you guys to at least answer one of my 2 questions... One hard, one easy.

 

[GeSuN]

Maybe it should be moved though... Dont want to start a flame war here... Mods --> Sorry bout that...

 

[Theslowone]

I think of the tree falling in the woods as a nature, it would fall if humans were on this planet or not, and since a noise doesn't need a human to make or hear then yes it would make a noise.

 

[trisweb]

The age old question...

Since there are no people (or animals or microphones) to percieve the sound, it wouldn't be considered a sound. It is simply large vibrations in the air. Our brains interpret that information and turn it into sound, but without interpretation, it's just vibrations.

That's my two cents.

 

[Sahakiel]

Interpretation or not, sound is the vibration of air, period. Whether or not we can hear it is another matter.
Dogs hear things in ranges humans cannot. Doesn't mean they're not hearing sound.

 

[GeSuN]

Since there are no people (or animals or microphones) to percieve the sound, it wouldn't be considered a sound. It is simply large vibrations in the air. Our brains interpret that information and turn it into sound, but without interpretation, it's just vibrations.

Exactly, now imagine that you put a computer w/mic to record that sound/noise/vibrations/whatever. How would the computer tell the difference between a noise and a "music" (lets say that a bird does a sort of music)... Even if the computer would record the different vibrations between those 2 sounds, how can he tell that the tree makes a noise... maybe the birds make a noise too but a little bit less loud... This is all human conception, no? Am i mistaking or is there a way that the computer would make the difference?

 

[tweakmm]

in re: the scuba diver thing, you guys seen magnolia?

 

[azkiwi]

"Interpretation or not, sound is the vibration of air, period. Whether or not we can hear it is another matter."

This is the correct answer. I think when originally posited, it was supposed to be a philosphical question about the existence of the world in the absence of human consiousness. Rather a self-centered view point! You might as well ask did the tree actually fall?! ( Maybe the rest of the world just turned sideways...)


As to a computer differentiating between "music" and "noise", it will differentiate according to programming. Music is to sound as weeds are to plants - highly subjective.

 

[Evadman]

This is something I discussed at length with some of my college profs. Here it is, broken down.

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

The tree does not even "fall" It goes from standing, the next moment, it is on the ground. Without an observer, the tree does not actually fall. Therefore, it does not make a sound. The observer affects the observed.

There is a repeatable experement that proves this. Some of you may have heard of it. If you take light and shine it through a piece of cardboard with 2 long horizontal slots cut into it, you will get 4 "slots" of light. The first time this was done, the scientists were confused, so they set up an aparatus to record the way the light flowed trough the slots. When they then tried it, the light came out as a round blotch. Freaky, no? Also remember Schrotinger's (sp?) cat.

Chaos theory I believe. Mods, Please do not lock!

<edit>
The real question should be... "If a tree falls on a mime in a forest, and no one is around, does anyone care?"

The Mod is feelin merciful today, and will simply move this thread from HT to OT instead.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[rimshaker]

The sound waves from the falling tree is present, guaranteed.... it's only a matter of someone being within the vicinity to pick those sound waves up and process it.

 

[Evadman]

Rimshaker - That's waht I was trying to get at. If it is not observed the tree goes directly to the next state ( aka, it just instantiously goes from standing, to felled ) so no sound waves would be emmited

 

[b0mbrman]

<< A man is found in a recently burnt forest, with his scuba diving suit on... The closest lake is 10 miles away, so he couldnt walk there... How is this possible?? >>


What a way to go...

 

[Evadman]

Woudn't that scuba diver be crushed and dyed red as well

 

[UglyCasanova]

I remember reading in I think it was "The Age of Spiritual Machines" that we affect reality. If no one is there to witness the fall then in fact it doesn't fall at all.

 

[wQuay]

I'm confused. What do you ppl mean, "it doesn't fall at all." Won't the motion of a falling tree be the same whether I'm standing there or not? I realize that if I see a tree on the ground that was standing the previous day I can't say that it's fallen, it's just changed positions. But that's just from my perspective, and my perspective doesn't have any impact on what actually happened.

Or is that the point..

 

[Evadman]

<< Or is that the point. >>

Exactly

 

[b0mbrman]

Yup...it's all a thinking exercise

 

[Spike]

I still don't get the second one with the scuba guy, whats up with him? as for the tree... who cares

 

[Theslowone]

You know that the planes/ helicopters pick water out of nearby lakes, rivers, ponds to put out fires. Well it just happened that one of the places that they decided to pick water up from had a scuba diver in it. So they dip their bucket to fill it with water and caught this guy. Then they released the water onto the flames, hence crispy aqua man.

Here is something off of a page i just pulled up:

If you think your day is bad...

Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt out section of forest whilst assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wetsuit, complete with a dive tank,flippers and face mask. A post mortem examination revealed that the person died not from burns but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about determining how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the coast - some 20 kilometers away from the forest.

The firefighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters with very large buckets. The buckets were dropped into the ocean for rapid filling, then flown to the forest fire and emptied. You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next he was doing a breaststroke in a fire bucket 300m in the air. Apparently, he extinguished exactly 1.78m (5'10") of the fire.

 

[Evadman]

crispy aqua man

ROFLMAO!! Was anyone else thinking "My ability to talk to fish is of no help Wonder Woman!"

 

[notfred]

<< A man is found in a recently burnt forest, with his scuba diving suit on... The closest lake is 10 miles away, so he couldnt walk there... How is this possible?? >>



I hate stupid riddles like this.

Answer 1) He put n a scuba suit, doused himself in gasoline, and set himself on fire.

Answer 2) Mobsters dressed him in scuba gear, burnt him, and disposed of him in a recently burned forest.

Answer 3) He drove from the lake, rather than walked.

Want me to keep going? they're all equally correct. Who the hell scuba dives in a lake, anyway?

 

[Theslowone]

Who the hell scuba dives in a lake, anyway?

I know a lot of people who do, they sink boats, cars, planes and let people practice scuba diving.