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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Murphy's Law</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../M.html" title="M"/><link rel="previous" href="munge.html" title="munge"/><link rel="next" href="music.html" title="music"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Murphy's Law</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="munge.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">M</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="music.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Murphys-Law"/><dt xmlns="" id="Murphys-Law"><b>Murphy's Law</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">prov.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> The correct, <span class="emphasis"><em>original</em></span> Murphy's Law reads:
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“<span class="quote">If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways
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can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.</span>” This is a
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principle of defensive design, cited here because it is usually given in
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mutant forms less descriptive of the challenges of design for
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<a href="../L/luser.html"><i class="glossterm">luser</i></a>s. For example, you don't make a two-pin plug
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symmetrical and then label it “<span class="quote">THIS WAY UP</span>”; if it matters
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which way it is plugged in, then you make the design asymmetrical (see also
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the anecdote under <a href="magic-smoke.html"><i class="glossterm">magic smoke</i></a>).</p><p>Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of McDonnell-Douglas's test
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engineers on the rocket-sled experiments that were done by the U.S. Air
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Force in 1949 to test human acceleration tolerances (USAF project MX981).
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One experiment involved a set of 16 accelerometers mounted to different
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parts of the subject's body. There were two ways each sensor could be
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glued to its mount, and somebody methodically installed all 16 in a
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replacement set the wrong way around. Murphy then made the original form
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of his pronouncement, which the test subject (Major John Paul Stapp)
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mis-quoted (apparently in the more general form “<span class="quote">Whatever can go
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wrong, <span class="emphasis"><em>will</em></span> go wrong)</span>” at a news conference a
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few days later.</p><p>Within months ‘Murphy's Law’ had spread to various
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technical cultures connected to aerospace engineering. Before too many
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years had gone by variants had passed into the popular imagination,
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changing as they went. Most of these are variants on “<span class="quote">Anything that
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can go wrong, will</span>”; this is more correctly referred to as
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<a href="../F/Finagles-Law.html"><i class="glossterm">Finagle's Law</i></a>. The memetic drift apparent in these
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mutants clearly demonstrates Murphy's Law acting on itself!</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="munge.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../M.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="music.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">munge<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>music</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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