Murphy's Law of the Day

The Origin of Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law: prov. The correct, original Murphy's Law reads: "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." This is a principle of defensive design, cited here b
ecause it is usually given in mutant forms less descriptive of the challenges of
design for lusers. For example, you don't make a two-pin plug symmetrical and t
hen label it `THIS WAY UP'; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you m
ake the design asymmetrical.
Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the rocket-sled experiments th
at 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 mounte
d to different parts of the subject's body. There were two ways each sensor coul
d be glued to its mount, and somebody methodically installed all 16 the wrong wa
y around. Murphy then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the tes
t 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 sometimes referred to as Finagle'
s Law. The memetic drift apparent in these mutants clearly demonstrates Murphy's
Law acting on itself!