Subject: RE: [Utah-astronomy] Sound waves reported by NASA
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 19:22:29 -0600
> Why not
> call the phenomenon what it is (as you have all
> clarified): a pressure wave.
I believe that they call it a sound wave due to the
fact that there are at least three waves that are
roughly the same distance apart, traveling at the same
speed. So if you greatly sped up time, the passage of
these waves would be analogous to sound waves in our
atmosphere.
> "Sound," "acoustics" and such terms make no sense
> without an observer,
I would say that in the physical sense, sound and
acoustics still make sense even with no one around to
hear them. In the case of acoustics, sound waves
generated by a remotely controlled device in a room
still interfere constructively and destructively
depending upon various factors even without there
being an observer within 50 miles.
> If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one
> there to hear it, does the
> tree exist?
I guess that my point is that it depends upon how one
defines sound. If, philosophically, one insists upon
there being an observer, then there is no sound when a
tree falls in the forest if no one is there to hear
it. (The tree's existence has nothing to do with there
being an observer). :-) However, if one abstracts
one's self from such ideas, one can see that there are
still sound waves, and thus sound, generated when the
tree falls.
Greg T.
PS a fun fact: This reported "sound" Has a frequency
of around. 1.596*10^-15 Hz. That is to say, the time
between the passage of one wave and the next is
roughly
19,854,825 years.
>
>
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