At one time or another, I'm sure we've all heard that stupid philosophy question, "If a tree falls in a forest when no one is around, does it still make a sound?" Well, somehow during Thanksgiving dinner, my cousin and I got into a heated argument about a nearly identical question. The question was, "Suppose someone lives completelly alone in the middle of nowhere (no pets or anything). If a person left their radio on, then left their house, would it make any noise?" My cousin assured me that yes, of course the radio was making a sound. After all, according to her, "if the radio is on, a sound is being created." I could barely keep myself from laughing at her.

When an person, animal, or thing emits a noise, it sends vibrations (sound waves) through the air. The sound waves then funnel into your ear canal via your outer ear. When the sound waves travel to your middle ear, they hit your eardrum, causing it to vibrate. Your eardrum causes the three tiny bones in your ear to vibrate (these bones being the hammer, anvil, and stirrup). The stirrup bone sends these vibrations into the cochlea, which is the spiral-shaped thing in your inner ear. The cochlea, which is filled with fluid, has all these little hair-like thingies called cilia, which move whenever the cochlea's fluid vibrates. These cilia change the vibrations into messages sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. This nerve carries messages from a bunch of receptors in your ear up to your brain. Your brain then recognizes the sound, or "hears" it, and tells you what you are hearing. The thing you hear is a SOUND.

So you see, I have to be correct, right? The radio is giving off sound waves, but there just isn't anyone there to hear it. In order to be a "sound," the sound waves have to vibrate off of an eardrum. Because otherwise it's not a sound, but sound WAVES. Right?! I hope I'm right, anyway...lol.

Anyway, after all that, my cousin wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the afternoon...heh heh.

~Den-"do you hear what I hear?"