A Questioning Thought for the Day

[ngauger]

The original question is akin to the "If a tree falls in the forest and no one there to hear it..." paradox, as well as the "If a light is on but no one is there to see it..." one as well. The answer to both of those is "no", since both sound waves and light waves require receptors and specific neural connections to be perceived and translated as such.

Not so very long ago, it was impossible to travel anywhere because we would fall off the edge of the Earth, which was the center of our universe. After that, we knew that men could not fly. When I was a kid, it was an "absolute fact" that no airplane could break the sound barrier. Then it became "fact" that no one could get into space without massive amounts of rocket power, and then along came Rutan and the Space Plane and did it anyway.

I think the problem with human progress is that we insist on limiting ourselves.

The "horse" is the same analogy as that bee (or fly)) in the car.. If we're all going 65 MPH.. and the fly takes off.. He's "Flying" normally, but to an outsider - he's flying as fast or faster than the car...

I Love the tree in the woods question.. You're correct by definition, it does Not make a sound, it makes "noise"... for it to qualify as "sound", you need a receptor.. microphone or an ear.