- For other uses, see Murphy's Law (disambiguation).
Murphy's law is a popular adage in Western culture that originated on the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1885 in Wyoming Territory (as one theory has it) or developed in rocket-sled tests in the late 1940s, as another theory claims. The Law broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. "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 often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Anything that can go wrong, will").
One possible origin of this adage (1) involved a Murphy directly with laws and legal effects; (2) involved and impacted organized planners and schemers; (3) involved a significant, astounding historic happening; (4) originated with a humorous incident, in that something big, special, and well-planned ended up unexpectedly and laughingly wrong (not just some irritating oversight in 1949 that had a dour insignificant ending); (5) and participants kept secret the originating incidence fearing personal humiliation, professional ridicule, or career repercussions; (6) other involved persons were silenced by the likelihood of personal embarassments; and (7) its disclosure began in 1885, being published as early as 1918, giving time for frequent and widespread reference to the Murphy's Law maxim by that name. See below for a theory describing a 1885 incident which encompasses all of these requirements, while a second theory describing a 1949 incident (also below) lacks or strains to satisfy five of the seven factors essential to proof.
Murphy's Law is sometimes confused with Finagle's Corollary which is also known as Sod's law.
Per the 1949 theory, in American culture the law was named somewhat sarcastically[1][2] by Stapp's Team working on Project MX981 at Edwards Air Force Base after Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr., a development engineer contributing support measurement technology for a brief time on rocket sled experiments done by the United States Air Force in 1949 with inveterate adage collector and the law's undoubted populizer Doctor/Colonel John Paul Stapp, a former next-door neighbor and friend of Murphy. Author Nick T. Spark concludes 'A History of Murphy's Law'[3] that differing recollections years later are unable to pinpoint who exactly coined the phrase in its now well known form in the several months since the team tried new measurement devices developed by the eponymous Edward Murphy, but that it was coined in adverse reaction to something Murphy said when his devices failed to perform and eventually cast into its present form prior to a press conference some months later, the first ever (of many) given by Colonel Stapp, The fastest man on earth.
Railroad Origins
The following is the suppressed but documentable account of when, where, and why the pre-existing Murphy’s Law originated, and how its name was coined and spread throughout the land by railroad workers:
In 1881-1882, the Union Pacific Railroad dedicated, in Southeast Wyoming Territory, at the highest point on the transcontinental route, a huge granite pyramid to honor the Ames brothers who helped finance the transcontinental railway venture, the Ames Monument.
In 1885, after land surveys caught up with the westward advances, an elected Justice of the Peace names William L "Billy" Murphy in Laramie, Wyoming talked to Albany County Surveyor W. O. Owen, and learned that the monument had been built on "vacant" government land, not on a railroad section. Murphy went to the land office in Cheyenne and filed a Desert Land Homestead claim to get legal right to the land where the monument stands. Murphy then wrote for outdoor advertisers to bid on leasing spaces on "his" pyramid. He also gave notice to the railroad company that its "rock pile" was trespassing on his "farm" and gave them a deadline to move it or lose it.
At first, embarrassed railroad principals could not believe they had built and publicly dedicated their glorious monument on government land or that Murphy could now own it and lease advertising space on this monument. However, checks of documents and records soon convinced them that all the law was on Murphy's side. The red-in-the-face railroad authorities realized that everything that could have gone wrong, certainly had gone wrong!
A top-level railroad lawyer was sent with a black valise, from Omaha headquarters to Laramie, with order to get clear title to the monument at any cost. The U.P. lawyer was joined by lawyer John Riner of Cheyenne, lawyer John Symons, Laramie City land agent, and railroad detective Nate Boswell, a former sheriff, law-men all! Murphy was tricked into meeting alone with the four powerful railroad negotiators who locked the door when he entered the room. The four legal experts then frightened Murphy into thinking he had broken the law by filing a homestead on the land. They told him all the witnesses who signed his homestead claim could be charged with perjury. They told Murphy he would surely lose his Justice of the Peace position, ruin his reputation, and risk prison.
Then they switched tactics and "generously" promised Murphy they would try hard to keep the matter quiet and save him from all those troubles — if only Murphy would just sign a relinquishment of his homestead claim and promise to never tell anyone. Their bluff worked fine. In the shadow of the four lawmen, Murphy signed the relinquishment of his claim. In exchange, the railroad gave Murphy the deeds to two vacant residential lots in Laramie City, then worth about $385.00 as "legal consideration."
Alas, mild-mannered Murphy later learned that the railroad lawyer had been carrying $15,000 in cash in his black valise to pay for the relinquishment, and had authority to pay twice that amount if necessary. Murphy had the law on his side and could have profited monumentally. Even for Murphy, everything that could have gone wrong, had gone wrong!
The story of Murphy using the law to tease the giant Union Pacific corporation spread on whispers and laughs across the continent from one railroad worker to the next. It was a great story: Murphy paid his $9.75 homestead fee and, with the law on his side, got a good laugh, a good scare, and two residential lots — but also lost a fortune!
This truly “monumental” and documented humorous incident involving “Murphy” and the “Law” occurred in 1885 in Old Wyoming Territory. The words "Murphy's Law" eventually became code-words for the story's moral: "[Everyone must expect and accept in good humor that] 'Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.’”
Disclosure of the 1885 incident was first published on pages 1 thru 10 in the September 1918 issue of Railroad Man's Magazine in an article entitled "The Great Ames Monument Plot" written by Murphy's co-conspirator, William O. Owen. This evidences the fact that the 1885 incident was widely known among railroad men and has been around a long enough time to have its moral become a maxim known as Murphy's Law.
A more extensive account of this research can be found on www.over-land.com/rrwest.html.
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, which conflicts (a long running interpersonal feud, in truth) were unreported until Spark researched the matter. By far the most in-depth discussion of the various accounts is the book A History of Murphy's Law by Nick T. Spark, which expands upon and documents his original four part article published in 2003 (Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)[4]) on the controversy: Why Everything You Know About Murphy's Law is Wrong. 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 brakes at the end.
Initial tests used a humanoid crash test dummy strapped to a seat on the sled, but subsequent tests were performed by medical doctor John Paul Stapp, at that time an Air Force 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 was engaged in supporting similar research using high speed centrifuges to generate g-forces. 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 wrongly. It was at this point that a disgusted Murphy made his pronouncement, despite being offered the time and chance to calibrate and test the sensor installation prior to the test proper, which he declined somewhat irritably getting off on the wrong foot with the MX981 team. In an interview conducted by Nick Spark, George Nichols, another engineer who was present, stated that Murphy blamed the failure on his assistant after the failed test, 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. Another account credits Doctor Captain Stapp (known both as the fastest man on Earth and a habitual collector of adages), with espousing it shortly afterwards during a press conference. Others, including Edward Murphy's surviving son Robert Murphy, deny Nichols' account (which is supported by Hill, both interviewed by Spark), 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." Other documents indicate that Robert A. Murphy himself changed his story several times on several different occasions, including on a lengthy radio station interview which survives[citation needed].
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 always 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 (possible things that could go wrong) before doing a test and act to counteract them. Thus Stapp's usage and Murphy's alleged usage are very different in outlook and attitude. One is sour, the other an affirmation of the predictible being able to be surmounted, usually by sufficient planning and redundancy. Hill and Nichol's believe Murphy was unwilling to take the responsibility for the device's initial failure (by itself a blip of no large significance) and is to be doubly-damned for not allowing the MX981 team time to validate the sensor's operability and for trying to blame an underling when doing so in the embarrassing aftermath.
Variations
Murphy's law has taken on many different formulations. In 1952, the proverb was phrased "Anything That Can Possibly Go Wrong, Does" in the epigraph of John Sack's The Butcher: The Ascent of Yerupaja. Possibly the earliest printed use of Murphy's name in connection with the law is in Lloyd Mallan's 1955 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 a "Murphy proofing" 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 computers 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, which is harmless to the disc. 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 meta-laws in some way, either through some form of self-reference or referral to other laws or analogies. For instance, the buttered-bread analogy could be further extended: "The chance of a dropped slice of bread landing buttered-side down on a new carpet is proportional to the price of the carpet." (If the buttered side falls facing up, then obviously the wrong side is buttered.) A further example is Murphy's Ultimate Corollary: "If it could have gone wrong earlier and it did not, it ultimately would have been beneficial for it to have." John Gall's systemantics offers further expansion of Murphy's law.
"Laws" can occasionally be found to lead to a paradox, or which have positive outcomes; for example: when a cat 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. These perversions of Murphy's Law can be summed up in Silverman's Paradox: "If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will."
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!. Later, a collection of three volumes was also published. This led to a corollary: "Stores selling Volume I have not heard of Volume II; stores selling Volume II have run out of Volume I". Certainly, when it comes to collecting the meta-laws, "If something is worth doing, it is worth overdoing".
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
- A slice of buttered bread, when dropped, will always land butter-side down. Also known by kids as "Jellybread always falls jellyside down". Based on the fact that such bread usually has just enough added torque to spin halfway before hitting the floor (if knocked from an eight-foot ladder, for example, it will tend to land buttered side up) and that the butter will weigh down its side of the bread more than the dry side.
- If you put two cords together, or even if it's a single cord, you can be certain you'll end up with a tangle that'll trouble your mind intensely. Perfect example is earphones and the way they'll always tangle beyond belief even if you put them down in a tidy order.
- When you need an item that is in a heap, it will always be the one at the bottom.
- The day you forget your umbrella, it pours with rain.
- When caught in a traffic jam, the lane that you are in will always be the slowest to move.
- Junk will grow to fill the available cupboard space.
- Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity (usually in reference to fileservers; see also Parkinson's law).
- All small objects of value will disappear when set down.
- Magellan's Allegory: If you stop and ask someone for directions, and they tell you "You can't miss it"... then be assured that you will.
- When you put your pants on without looking — they will always be on backwards.
- Airline Travel Variation: The time you have to catch a flight is inversely proportional to the distance to the gate.
- Nothing ever gets built to budget or to deadline (also known as Cheops' Law).
- The more constant characteristic of computer science is user ability to overload any system they have. (Paquel's Law).
- Smoke always goes towards non-smokers.
References
- ^ http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i5/murphy/murphy1.html
- ^ http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i5/murphy/murphy2.html
- ^
- ^ http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume9/v9i5/murphy/murphy0.html
See also
External links