Murphy's Law Edit Meaning

1.

prov. If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.

Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the rocket-sled experiments that were done by the U.S. Air Force in 1949 to test human acceleration tolerances (USAF project MX981). One experiment involved a set of 16 accelerometers mounted to different parts of the subject's body. There were two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount, and somebody methodically installed all 16 the wrong way around. Murphy then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the test subject (Major John Paul Stapp) quoted at a news conference a few days later.

Within months `Murphy's Law' had spread to various technical cultures connected to aerospace engineering. Before too many years had gone by variants had passed into the popular imagination, changing as they went. Most of these are variants on "Anything that can go wrong, will"; this is correctly referred to as Finagle's Law. The memetic drift apparent in these mutants clearly demonstrates Murphy's Law acting on itself!

This is a principle of defensive design, and usually given in mutant forms less descriptive of the challenges of design.

You don't make a two-pin plug symmetrical and then label it `THIS WAY UP'; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you make the design asymmetrical.

2.

The law that says anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

I just won the lotto, but I lost the lotto ticket.

3.

Commonly, a situation where, if anything can go wrong, it will, but I wanted to add my examples.

You always get your blackjack one or two hands after you lower your bet.

If you take the phone with you outside, say to garden, it will never ring, but if you leave it inside there will be several messages on your voicemail.

4.

A law that states that everything that can go wrong, will. For Example: A jellied piece of

bread will always fall jelly side down. Example 2: Just when you thought it was safe to wear a white skirt to school, because your period isnt for another week---you end up with a japanese flag on your ass.

5.

Shit happens.

I always fail to capture that damn roadrunner thanks to Murphy's Law, and all those defective, shitty ACMEproducts.

6.

More or less, if a cat always lands on its feet, and the bread always lands peanut butter side down, then if you strap a piece of bread to a cat and drop it, what happens? It implodes.

7.

I have seen it quoted in this manner: "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way." It is more a psychological law than a superstition then.