Murphy’s Law

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 pr-nouncement, 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 aerosp-ce engineering. before too many years had gone by variants had p-ssed 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.
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.
the law that says anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
i just won the lotto, but i lost the lotto ticket.
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 j-panese flag on your -ss.
sh-t happens.
i always fail to capture that d-mn roadrunner thanks to murphy’s law, and all those defective, sh-tty acme products.
more or less, if a cat always lands on its feet, and the bread always lands peanut b-tter side down, then if you strap a piece of bread to a cat and drop it, what happens? it implodes.
1. everthing that can go wrong, will go wrong
2. all warranties will expire upon payment of invoice
4. friends come and go, but enemies acc-mulate
12. if you try and please everybody noone will like it
14. you will always find something in the last place you look
15. the chance of a piece of bread falling with the b-ttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet
20. anything you try to fix will take longer and cost more than you thought
21. if you fool around with a thing for very long, you will screw it up
22. a $300.00 picture tube will protect a 10c fuse by blowing first
24. any tool dropped while repairing a car will roll underneath to the exact centre
25. the repairman would have never seen a model quite like yours before
26. when a broken appliance is demonstrated fot the repairman, it will work perfectly
30. everybody has a scheme for getting rich that will not work
35. you will remember that you forgot to take out the garbage when the garbage truck is 2 doors away
37. theres never a time to do it right, but thers always time to do it over
39. anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening
47. never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.
50. never play leapfrog with a unicorn
52. if everybody seems to be going well, you obviously dont know what the h-ll is going on
54. in case of doubt, make it sound convincing
55. never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference
brodie: omg! my b-m hurts so much!
jack: aw man, did you read murphys law?
brodie: no, why?
jack: because if you did, it would have told you not to play leapfrog with a unicorn

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