What was murphy law

The idea at the heart of Murphy's Law — if anything could go wrong, it would — have been around for a long, long time. It reflects the basic pessimism of life that many people point to and find comfort in when things just don't go their way.

The concept is also broadened. For example, you might hear people say that if something goes wrong, it will You can even hear it rehearsed in a number of different ways, such as if you drop a piece of toast, it's sure to land buttered-side down. Most of them were in use long before the word Murphy's Law became common. Who was this Murphy, then? Some people don't think there was a true Murphy. Instead, they claim Murphy was a name given to a tumultuous mechanic who appeared in old Navy cartoons around the time of World War II.

Others, though, believe that there was indeed a Murphy. Murphy, Jr. Captain Murphy was an air force engineer who took part in a deceleration test at Edwards Air Force Base in California in During the check, Captain Murphy discovered that all 16 deceleration sensors had been improperly mounted. Solon, ancient Greece Sent by Red key to happiness is to be O. Sent by Divya The two most abundant things in all the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

Sent by Ross Henderson and another version to this law The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen, stupidity and opinions. Sent by Martin and Henrik from Denmark Stupidity is the fundamental driving force of the Universe, which explains why stupid people always go wrong.

Sent by Anonymousepad Every rule has an exception except the Rule of Exceptions. Sent by Bob Holdegraver If you plan for something to go wrong, and it doesn't go wrong, it would have been ultimately profitable for it to go wrong. Sent by John Wilson Common sense isn't. Sent by Mark M Stevens The universe is great enough for all possibilities to exist. Sent by Elizabeth A. Kennedy Those who don't take decisions never make mistakes.

Sent by Asier Zabarte The only price you pay for greatness is knowing that it can't last forever. Sent by Taranis Valerin Anything that cant possible in a million years go wrong, will go wrong. Anything that seems right, is putting you into a false sense of security.

If everything seems great, its already gone wrong. The only time you're right, is when its about being wrong. The only times something's right, is when everyone agrees its wrong. The last five laws were sent by Thomas Wrobel If a Murphy law is tried to be used to have a desired outcome, the law will backfire.

Sent by Pat M. Its never so bad it couldn't be worse. Sent by Raymond J. Gunn that says that his friend George Brabbs use to say it, then he died, now he wonders Andrew's Law When saying that things can not possibly get any worse - they will Sent by Andrew Milbourne Murphy's Metalaw Knowing Murphy's Law will never help. Avoidance Law If for some reason Murphy's Law fails to operate, it is building up for something big.

Hermetic Murphism As above, so below. The big catastrophes are made up of smaller ones. Buddha's Version of Murphy's Law Decay is inherent in all things, strive unceasingly. Fleming's corollary: Nothing ever gets better. Murphologist's Curse Given time one can develop a sense of how Murphy's Law will act, but the Murphy Sense will tingle only after it is too late to keep the excreta from impacting the rotating blade based wind generator.

The last seven laws were sent by Azrias Mordax The probability that something can go wrong is directly proportional to the square of the amount of inconvenience it can cause you Everything that could possibly go wrong for anyone else always seems to happen to you Law of cooperatives In any particular situation, if three things can go wrong, they usually do in sequence, each facilitating the occurrence of the next The last three laws were sent by Takura Razemba Mr.

Murphy warning: Don't mess with Mrs. Murphy Mrs. Murphy's Law: If something goes wrong, it's Mr. Murphy's fault. Last two laws were sent by Frank O'Neal Mrs. Murphy's Law If anything can go wrong it will, and when it does, the woman will get the blame Sent by ginakell hotmail.

Sent by Nabeel Another name for Murphy's law: The law of conservation of misery Sent by Achten Carvalheiro's deduction If in a particular circumstance Murphy's law don't apply, then something must be wrong Sent by Filipe Carvalheiro Sharad's Law If Murphy's law is right then it will go wrong Sent by Sharad Bhandari A law about websites: The more important it is to get to a website, the greater the chance the server is down.

Sent by Shaunna Laws about this site: The More the number of laws you claim to have, the more the number of laws you are going to miss. Sent by Sathish This site won't open when you want to show someone what exactly Murphy laws are Sent by Dinni Remember: Shit happens Murphy's law is intrinsic.

Sent by wolfram And on the eighth day God said;"O. Murphy, you take over! Sent by Robert A. If in a series events that could have gone wrong and didn't, It will have been ultimately beneficial for them to have gone wrong in the first place. Sent by Don Jackson whatever was supposed to happen, won't Sent by TJ Engelking You can't expect the unexpected, otherwise there would be no need for the word unexpected You cant reason with the stupid The last two laws were sent by Tye Boyce If you lose something that is replaceable textbooks, clothing etc as soon as you buy a replacement the original will surface.

Sent by Nancy Decker Clemens' Law In any given situation, people will act so as to display the maximum possible amount of stupidity for that situation. Clemens' Law short form People are stupid. Sent by Matt Clemens What goes in must come out. Unless it's the other way around. Sent by Jeff Smith Better to be a pessimist than an optimist because when you say the glass is half empty it will have to be refilled Sent by Derek Drake Sooner or later, you will spill your beer Berneathys directional dichotomy West is always East of somewhere Berneathys formula fact Instruction manuals are for losers Berneathys guide theorem You're only lost if you admit it Berneathys gravitational paradox If gravity is all around us, why can't you push a fat dog down the stairs?

Last five laws were sent by Mike Berneathy Wet Law A spoon placed in the sink will locate to maximize splash from the faucet Pack Rat's Law All horizontal surfaces shall be filled to capacity Wife's Law Anything worth doing is well worth over-doing Reply: Anything over-done isn't worth the extra effort Last three laws were sent by Doug Ebeling It's no the drop that kills you Or in other words: someone else always seems to get the credit for your work.

The harder you work the more people there will be to claim credit except when it backfires. You get all the credit for the dumb move. Murphy was an extreme optimist! Says Charles L. Mays And we'll end this page with something optimistic don't hit me. Don't worry about Murphy's Law, you know it's gonna happen anyway, so just get on with it and get it over with!

If you make it through a Murphy Day The article began simply by describing all the things that had gone wrong in Murphy's life. Near the end of the first section of the article it described the formalization of Murphy's Law, as Murphy was waiting for the pending birth of his first child. The most memorable one was the mathematical formulation. What prompted me to write this was the foot note on this page, where the author of this comment indicated that the law was not formalized at Edwards Air Force Base, but rather another source.

To the best of my memory, it was in or about the fall of , I saw the photo copied article that presented Murphy's Law. I do not remember the magazine or it's date. What lead me to this site was the quest for the article described above. To my suprise and disappointment, no one has included the article. I would be interesting to publish this description and see if anyone else remembers the article or any other facts that would help find it.

Joe Smith One more thing about the origin of Murphy Law One important fact about Murphy's Law was that it was not actually coined by Murphy, but by another man of the same name. Michael Another thing about the origin of Murphy Law can anyone originate a law? Wingo's Research Principle: The bigger the discovery, the more likely it was made while testing for something else.

Wyszowski's Laws: 1. No experiment is reproducible. Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough. A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. A piece of electronic equipment is housed in a beautifully designed cabinet, and at the side or on top is a little box containing the components which the designer forgot to make room for.

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development. Arnold's Laws of Documentation: 1. If it should exist, it doesn't. If it does exist, it's out of date.

Only useless documentation transcends the first two laws. Cook's Cogitation: When putting cheese in a mousetrap, always leave room for the mouse. DeVrie's Dilemma: If you hit two typewriter keys simultaneously, the one you don't want to hit the paper does. If several thing can go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Launegayer's Maxim: All the world's an analog tape, and digital circuits play only bit parts.

Cooper's Law: If you do not understand a particular word in a piece of technical writing, ignore it. The piece will make perfect sense without it. Bogovich's Corollary to Mr. Cooper's Law: If the piece makes no sense without the word, it will make no sense with the word. Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful. Ralph's Observation: It is a mistake to allow any mechanical object to realize you are in a hurry.

Rapoport's Rule of the Roller Skate Key: Certain items that are crucial to a given activity will show up with uncommon regularity until the day when that activity is planned. At this point, the item in question will disappear from the face of the earth. Segal's Law: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure. The Principle Concerning Multifunctional Devices: The more functions a device is required to perform, the less effectively it can perform any individual function.

A phenomenon known to anyone who has ever lit fires: You can throw a burnt match out the window of your car and start a forest fire while you can use two boxes of matches and a whole edition of the Sunday paper without being able to start a fire under the dry logs in your fireplace. Aristotle's Dictum: One should always prefer the probable impossible to the improbable possible.

Arthur C. Clarke's Law: It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. Chisolm's Law of Inevitability: Any time things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something. Shirley Chisholm. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. Ed's Law of Radiology: The colder the X-ray table, the more body you are required to place upon it. Eklunds Law: The probability of an event being a coincidence decreases as the number of coincidences surrounding the event increases.

The probability that anyone will believe a singular event is coincidence increases as the number of coincidences surrounding the event increases. Etorre's Observation: The other line moves faster. This applies to all lines — bank, supermarket, tollbooth, customs, and so on. And don't try to change lines.

The Other Line — the one you were in originally — will then move faster. Barbara Ettore. Finagle's Corollary: On a seasonally adjusted basis, there are only six months in a year.

Foster's Thought: If polls are so accurate, why are there so many polling companies? George's Lament: The one exception to the rule that what goes up must come down is the landing gear. Gerhardt's Law: If you find something you like, buy a lifetime supply. They are going to stop making it.

Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics: 1. An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction. An object at rest will always be in the wrong place. The energy required to change either one of these states will always be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the task totally impossible. Grandmother Blackburn's Mental Umbrella: Always be prepared for the worst. If it happens, you are ready for it. If it doesn't, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Gumperson's Law: The probability of a given event occurring is inversely proportional to its desirability. Hoare's Law of Large Problems: Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.

Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's Law into account. If good luck is when preparation meets opportunity, then bad luck must be when poor planning meets a Mack truck. Jerry's Law: Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.

Juhani's Law: The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising. Kipling's Errata: If you keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you don't understand the problem. Langsam's Laws 1. Everything depends. Nothing is always. Everything is sometimes. Law of Probable Dispersal: Whatever it is that hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.

Lippka's Law: When the world falls into complete moral decay, don't be so old you can't enjoy it. Lord Falkland's Rule: When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision. Love letters, business contracts and money due you always arrive three weeks late, whereas junk mail arrives the day it was sent. Martin's Universal Law: Nothing is ever so good nor so bad that it can't be expanded to be more so. Meskimen's Law: There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.

Murphy's Law of Selective Gravity: An object will fall so as to do the most damage. Jenning's Corollary to Murphy's Law of Selective Gravity: The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet. The Path of Progress: A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.

The Dialectics of Progress: Direct action produces direct reaction. The Pace of Progress: Society is a mule, not a car. If pressed too hard, it will kick and throw off its rider. Nonreciprocal Laws of Expectations: Negative expectations yield negative results. Positive expectations yield negative results. Norman's Household Hint: Give me a home where the buffalo roam, and you've got a room full of buffalo chips.

Oler's Theorem: Everybody needs a certain level of misery in his life to ever be happy. Corollary 1: If his misery falls below his critical level, he becomes unhappy and is driven to seek new misery. Corollary 2: When his total misery rises to his critical level he becomes happy again.

Pudder's Law: Anything that begins well will end badly. Note: The converse of Pudder's law is not true. Ray's Rueful Rumination: The world is full of surprises, very few of which are pleasant. Rule of Failure: If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you have tried. Second Rule of Environmental Protection: The most efficient way to dispose of toxic waste is to reclassify the waste as non toxic.

Slick's Three Laws of the Universe: 1. Nothing in the known universe travels faster than a bad check. A quarter-ounce of chocolate equals four pounds of fat. There are two types of dirt: the dark kind, which is attracted to light objects, and the light kind, which is attracted to dark objects. Steiger's Law: This is as bad as the situation can get — but don't bet on it. Steinmetz's Rumination: There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.

Stovall's Law of Negative Inaction: The only thing wrong with doing nothing is that you never know when you're finished. Teller's Commentary: Whoever learns to control the weather will have destroyed the last safe topic of conversation. Terman's Law of Innovation: If you want a track team to win the high jump, you find one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot. The Holiday Turkey Laws: The size of a turkey bears no relation to the amount of hash it will produce.

At any given dinner where a single turkey is carved, three of the guests will ask for wings. Regardless of what time a wife serves a holiday dinner, it will cause her husband to miss the last half of the TV football game.

The job of carving a turkey is always assigned to the person least capable of carrying it out. The space available in an electric refrigerator contracts or expands in inverse ratio to the amount of leftovers.