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For the hardcore band, see Murphy's Law (band) . For all of Murphy's laws, see Wikiquote. Murphy's law (also known as ''' Finagle's Law ''' or ''' Sod's Law ''') is a popular Adage in Western Culture , which broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation. "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." It is most commonly formulated as "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Technically speaking, this latter definition is incorrect, given that it refers more accurately to the law of pessimism, Finagle's Law . In American Culture the law was named after Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr. , a development Engineer working for a brief time on Rocket Sled experiments done by the United States Air Force in 1949. THE LETTER OF THE LAW Accounts differ as to the precise origin of Murphy's law and the details about how it was initially formulated. From 1947 to 1949, a project known as MX981 took place on Muroc Field (later renamed Edwards Air Force Base ) for the purpose of testing the Human tolerance for G-forces during rapid deceleration. The tests used a rocket sled mounted on a Railroad Track with a series of hydraulic Brake s at the end. Initial tests used a humanoid Crash Test Dummy strapped to a seat on the sled, but subsequent tests were performed by John Paul Stapp , at that time a Captain . During the tests, questions were raised about the accuracy of the instrumentation used to measure the g-forces Captain Stapp was experiencing. Edward Murphy proposed using electronic strain gauges attached to the restraining clamps of Stapp's harness to measure the force exerted on them by his rapid deceleration. Murphy's assistant wired the harness, and a trial was run using a Chimpanzee . The sensors provided a zero reading, however; it became apparent that they had been installed incorrectly, with each sensor wired backwards. It was at this point that Murphy made his pronouncement. According to George Nichols, another engineer who was present, Murphy, in frustration, blamed the failure on his assistant, saying, "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will." Nichols' account is that "Murphy's law" came about through conversation among the other members of the team; it was condensed to "If it can happen, it will happen," and named for Murphy in mockery of what Nichols perceived as arrogance on Murphy's part. Others, including Edward Murphy's surviving son Robert Murphy, deny Nichols' account, and claim that the phrase did originate with Edward Murphy. According to Robert Murphy's account, his father's statement was along the lines of "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." In any case, the phrase first received public attention during a press conference in which Stapp was asked how it was that nobody had been severely injured during the rocket sled tests. Stapp replied that it was because they took Murphy's Law under consideration; he then summarized the law and said that in general, it meant that it was important to consider all the possibilities before doing a test. VARIATIONS Murphy's law has taken on many different formulations. In book, ''Men, Rockets and Space Rats'': "Colonel Stapp's favorite takeoff on sober scientific laws—Murphy's Law, Stapp calls it—'Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong'." THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW Regardless of the exact composition and origin of the phrase, its spirit embodies the principle of Defensive Design — anticipating the mistakes the end-user is likely to make. Murphy's g-force sensors failed because there existed two different ways to connect them; one way would result in correct readings, while the other would result in no readings at all. The end-user — Murphy's assistant, in the historical account — had a choice to make when connecting the wires. When the wrong choice was made, the sensors did not do their job properly. Thus, defensive design is sometimes referred to as "Murphy proofing" a procedure. In most well-designed technology intended for use by the average consumer, incorrect connections are made difficult. For example, the 3.5-inch Floppy Disk used in many Personal Computer s will not easily fit into the drive unless it is oriented correctly. In contrast, the older 5.25-inch floppy disk could be inserted in a variety of orientations that might damage the disk or drive. The newer CD-ROM and DVD technologies permit one incorrect orientation — the disc may be inserted upside-down. A defensive designer knows that if it is possible for the disc to be inserted the wrong way, someone will eventually try it. Fatalists observe that even if it theoretically is not possible to perform something incorrectly, someone will eventually manage it or, as Silvermoon's Law puts it: ''Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.'' From its initial public announcement, Murphy's law quickly spread to various technical cultures connected to Aerospace Engineering . Before long, variants had passed into the popular imagination, changing as they went. Generally, the spirit of Murphy's law captures the common tendency to emphasize the negative things that occur in everyday life; in this sense, the law is typically formulated as some variant of "If anything ''can'' go wrong, it ''will''," a variant often known as "Finagle's law" or "Sod's law" (chiefly British). Laws such as Murphy's are a direct expression of such seeming perversities in the order of the universe. Additional mutations of the law and its corollaries have developed, many of them 's Systemantics offers further expansion of Murphy's law. "Laws" can occasionally be found to lead to a is dropped from above a certain height, it will always land on its feet. In almost a canonical example of the hackish love for wordplay and cultural in-jokes, it has been noted that, therefore, if you strap a piece of buttered toast to the back of a cat, butter side up, and drop the cat out a window, it will fall to approximately a foot above the street, and hover there, spinning. Some state that Murphy's law cannot operate as a subset of something useful; for example: "It will start raining as soon as I start washing my car, except when I wash the car for the purpose of causing rain." O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's law is: "Murphy was an optimist!" These mutant versions demonstrate Murphy's law acting on itself, or perhaps Finagle's law acting on Murphy's law. Author Arthur Bloch has compiled a number of books full of corollaries to Murphy's law and variations thereof. These include the original ''Murphy's Law'' (1977) and ''Murphy's Law Book Two'' (1980), which are very general in scope, and the domain-specific volumes, ''Murphy's Law: Doctors: Malpractice Makes Perfect'' and ''Murphy's Law: Lawyers: Wronging the Rights in the Legal Profession!''. Murphy's Law is sometimes also presented as a life philosophy. Also embodying defensive design, many simply see it as a way of saying in the approach of anything whatsoever that could have a possible flaw (be it an engineering project, a romantic relationship, an argumentative case, carrying an upright bass down a flight of stairs, or putting on your suit), then it's always within good measure to make the necessary precautions to make sure that those flaws can't happen. Many see it as the initial meaning behind what Murphy was saying, a simple philosophy of defensive design that has been highly misinterpreted. However, this is left open to controversy. EXAMPLES
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