Elgar's Enigma Variation Wind Chimes are a substantial arrangement of wind chimes, which are capable of generating three minutes of Nimrod, that most well known piece by composer Edward Elgar.

This is an event of extreme rarity, requiring a once in a lifetime pattern of wind gusting, that causes the exact combination of hanging metal tubes to be struck in just the right order and timing that results in Nimrod being played.

The wind chimes' hanging tubes are arranged in the form of a series of circles, like a chandelier, and these must be suspended from a reinforced pylon in some location that has frequent variable wind exposure.

Each set of wind chimes is supplied with a constructed recording of this event so that their owners can know what they should be listening out for.

The de-luxe version comes with a special baton so that you can appear to be conducting your wind chimes in the event that they actually begin playing the famous piece.
-- xenzag, Aug 13 2019

OK, so let's assume you have three octaves of wind chimes - that's 37 chimes. The probability of them striking, say, ten consecutive notes in the right order (and assuming random wind) is going to be 1 in 37^10, or about 1 in 5 million billion. If you allow transpositions, your odds improve by a factor of 37, but if you also add timing constraints the odds go down a lot.

You might be better off hoping for something like the 5- note sequence from Close Encounters. Allowing for transpositions, you've got a 1 in 37^4 (or 1 in 1.8 million) chance of any given chime being the start of the right sequence. Assuming an average of 1 chime per second, you should hear the pattern about once every three weeks.

Beethoven's Fifth riff (ta-ta-ta-turr) would happen roughly once or twice per day.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 13 2019


To be hung from the white cliffs of Dover and followed by a Spitfire flyby I assume? [+]
-- bs0u0155, Aug 13 2019


//Beethoven's Fifth riff (ta-ta-ta-turr) would happen roughly once or twice per day.// Wouldn't be much of a halfbaked idea though.
-- xenzag, Aug 13 2019


What can I say. Since moving from academia to industry, I've always got an eye on applications.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 13 2019



random, halfbakery