Ha, I had the same attitude towards finance classes.

When I took Finance 101 I didn't study at all and still managed to get 100% on what was supposed to be the hardest test, while more than half the class failed it - to me it was very simple math, and I had no idea why everyone struggled.

And don't get me started on those financial calculators they told everyone to buy. I never owned a scientific caluclator, I wasn't going to waste my money on a single-purpose one either. So I just used the cheapest calculator I could find that could powers, and it was much simpler to use than all the functions that you had to spend $100+ on.

Preach on!

That 300 level soc class I mentioned, hardest soc class there is, I left the class with a 115%. It was so bloody easy. My classmatees were a bunch of whiners, everything was so damn hard.

I could not bring myself to endure the boredom anymore, hence I totally dropped the major and took some fun film classes instead.

says who?


Is it a fact that any vibration isn't a sound? maybe we just can't hear all vibrations, so we have no way of knowing that all vibrations DO make sound.

l think this is what it comes down to...what is the definition of "sound"? Obviously, if sound is 'vibrations hitting and being interpreted by our ears', then the answer is no. But if sound IS 'the vibrations that hit and are interpreted by ears' then it would be yes...

(BTW, l have no idea...maybe it is a fact that some vibrations dont make sound...maybe it is true that sound cant exist without an observer...l dunno..)
l'm just typing...

For once, I completely agree with you. There is no sound as such, there are only "sound waves". We perceive them as sound. Our ears can hears waves of certain length, but not others. It is all vibration and waves. Thankfully, this belongs to the few things that I actually did learn in Physics

It's all semantics anyway. You've gound the sound waves, which are defined as waves between 20 and 20,000 Hz (an objective definition), and then you've got the sound as a "vibration a living being can sense" (a subjective definition).

So when a tree falls, there are certainly sound waves being emitted, but if there's nobody around to hear it, then it didn't produce a "sound" as defined subjectively.

I've got a compromise: mu.

Ripper: at least the people in Soc Doc classes aren't going to go on and become responsible for your money in the future. Not so with the finance guys. Lord, save us :-D

Haha. Nope.

What about ecolocation? Its not those same waves aren't interpretted by ears at all, they are interpretted by touch. So those same waves are not a "sound" to everything. If a bat was in the viscinity of a tree falling, it wouldn't hear it at all....it would "feel" it.

Kypade...check your pm box in about one minute btw.

a) A clear defination will help in this one.
b) Lecter, read my reply to that post.
c) Dolce, check your PM right now.

Different definations of sound I have been able to find on this site:


http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/sound

[n] the particular auditory effect produced by a given cause; "the sound of rain on the roof"; "the beautiful sound of music"
[n] the subjective sensation of hearing something; "he strained to hear the faint sounds"
[n] the audible part of a transmitted signal; "they always raise the audio for commercials"
[n] (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language
[n] the
[n] a large ocean inlet or deep bay; "the main body of the sound ran parallel to the coast"
[n] a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water
[n] mechanical vibrations transmitted by an elastic medium; "falling trees make a sound in the forest even when no one is there to hear them"
[adv] deeply or completely; "slept soundly through the storm"; "is sound asleep"
[adj] thorough; "a sound thrashing"
[adj] (of sleep) deep and complete; "a heavy sleep"; "fell into a profound sleep"; "a sound sleeper"; "deep wakeless sleep"
[adj] in excellent physical condition; "good teeth"; "I still have one good leg"; "a sound mind in a sound body"
[adj] exercising or showing good judgment; "healthy scepticism"; "a healthy fear of rattlesnakes"; "the healthy attitude of French laws"; "healthy relations between labor and management"; "an intelligent solution"; "a sound approach to the problem";"sound advice"; "no reasonable explanation for his decision"
[adj] free from moral defect; "a man of sound character"
[adj] financially secure and safe; "sound investments"; "a sound economy"
[adj] in good condition; free from defect or damage or decay; "a sound timber"; "the wall is sound"; "a sound foundation"
[adj] having legal efficacy or force; "a sound title to the property"
[adj] reflects weight of sound argument or evidence; "a sound argument"
[v] measure depths with a sounding line, as of a body of water
[v] utter with vibrating vocal chords
[v] appear in a certain way; "This sounds interesting"
[v] give off a certain sound or sounds; "This record sounds scratchy"
[v] make a certain noise or sound; "She went `Mmmmm'"; "The gun went `bang'"
[v] cause to sound; "sound the bell"; "sound a certain note"
[v] announce by means of a sound; "sound the alarm"

As you can see, not all of them take perception into account. You can ignore some all together as they have nothing to do with what were talking about (ex: Making a sound argument)

Why you little B*****d. *shakes fists*

I totally fell for that one.

works everytime : )

Instead, they go and run studies using governemnt money and come out with useless and pointless statistics made by idiots used by idiots to get stupid laws passed :wink:

We're screwed either way

Think there's a way we can find to blame it on Stoichiometry :?:

Well, it does have the "Stoic" part in it; in other words, we're screwed because of our seeming indifference.

there are other living organism that heard the tree falling. Maybe a fox or a wolf heard it. Just because we can't communicate with the animal to learn if the tree made a noise doesn't mean the tree didn't make the noise.

And if you put a cat in a box and shoot the box, I'm calling animal cruelty on your ass'!

Yup :wink:

Apparently the dictionary.



That is the defintion. And we're not just talking about human ears either. What matters is that someone or some animal is there to perceive it. That's what makes it a sound.

but in the forest there is always some kind of animal or insect that is in the region that will hear the tree falling. Thus it made a sound.

I just provided several definations where its actually not a part of the dictionary.

My question is, lets say it is 100% part of the dictionary and no other defination is. WHy the hell is this a philosophical question then?? I mean hell, look up a dictionary and you have the answer .. why the debate??