Ideas worth spreading

The beautiful math behind the world's ugliest music

4,591,794 views |

Scott Rickard |

TEDxMIA

• September 2011

Scott Rickard set out to engineer the ugliest possible piece of music, devoid of repetition, using a mathematical concept known as the Costas Array. In this surprisingly entertaining talk, he shares the math behind musical beauty ... and its opposite.

Scott Rickard set out to engineer the ugliest possible piece of music, devoid of repetition, using a mathematical concept known as the Costas Array. In this surprisingly entertaining talk, he shares the math behind musical beauty ... and its opposite.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMIA, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

About the speaker

Scott Rickard

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Scott Rickard is passionate about mathematics, music -- and educating the next generation of scientists and mathematicians.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMIA, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.