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Why California's Musical Road Sounds Terrible

2017-10-16

[public] 13.9M views, 604K likes, 7.78K dislikes audio only

channel thumbTom Scott
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In Lancaster, California, there's a musical road. When you drive over it, it plays the William Tell Overture. Unfortunately, it's out of tune. Here's why.

Thanks to David Simmons-Duffin, who figured this out about nine years ago: http://davidsd.org/2008/12/honda-needs-a-tune-up/ -- he seems to be the first to have figured out not just that it's wrong, but exactly what happened!

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Tom Scott Hi, I'm Tom Scott. These are some of the things I've made and done. They'll probably come back to haunt me in a few years' time. Contact me: https://www.tomscott.com/contact/ • • • This channel is a production of Pad 26 Limited, registered in England and Wales, № 11662641. Registered office: Amelia House, Crescent Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1QR (This address is only for legal documents; no other mail will be forwarded.)
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