If a tree falls....

[Mekkala]

Here's a really interesting debate, if a tree falls on a deserted island, where there are no animals or humans, would it still make a sound?

See now, I've never understood the point of this question. Unless you subscribe to solipsism (which, while internally consistent, can never be tested and is completely indistinguishable from a non-solipsistic reality, and is thus a pointless consideration), it's nothing but a question of semantics. We know what happens when a tree falls on a deserted island and nobody hears it -- waves spread through the surrounding matter that, if encountered by a mechanism designed to respond to such waves, will produce the observation we call "sound".

Now, can we really call it "sound" if no device "hears" it? Perhaps. It depends on how you define the word "sound". That has no bearing on what actually happens, however, and so the question is meaningless unless you're an English teacher correcting a student on the proper usage of a word.

 

[Mekkala]

My friend the married bachelor says: Our ability to verbalize a proposition does not entail its logical possibility.

Precisely, but that does not mean that the question tells us nothing. Specifically, it tells us that it is impossible for both an immovable object and an unstoppable force to exist at the same time. The possible existence of both entails a logically impossibility as demonstrated by that question.

Interestingly enough, an omnipotent being should be able to create either an unstoppable force or an immovable object, or even both at the same time. Thus, an omnipotent being is a logical contradiction

 

[Faithful nonbeliever]

I've always found those interesting, like the one hand clapping thing. It's amazing how your mind just becomes silent for a second.

As for the tree falling, it all comes down to how you define sound.
The transmitted vibrations that are made could still be considered sound without the device to intercept them. Depends how you look at it.

 

[Buzz Dixon]

Actually, you can clap with one hand. It's called the clam clap and do it by rapidly closing your fist while keeping your fingers straight. It looks like a clam shell closing.

 

[Aslantic]

A falling tree would produce "sound waves" - that fact is not changed by semantics or terminiology .... is it?