Murphy's Original Law And Its Corollaries Murphy's Original Law:
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.
Murphy's Law or Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives:
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Murphy's Corollaries:
- Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
Quantized Revision of Murphy's Law:
Everything goes wrong all at once.
Murphy's Constant:
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value.
The Murphy Philosophy:
Smile... tomorrow will be worse.
Conclusions:
1. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the first one to go wrong.
Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
2. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
3. Anything that can't go wrong will anyway.
4. If several things that could have gone wrong have not gone wrong, it would have been ultimately beneficial for them to have gone wrong.
5. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
6. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
7. Everything takes longer than you think.
8. Every solution breeds new problems.
9. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
10. Mother nature is a bitch.
Commentary:
Murphy was an optimist.
Addendum to Murphy's Law:
You never run out of things that can go wrong.
Law of the Perversity of Nature or Mrs. Murphy's Corollary:
You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter.
Corollaries:
- The bread will always fall with the buttered side down.
- Otherwise, the butter was on the wrong side.
- The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
Variations and derivations of Murphy's Law
Silvermoon's law: Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Buses take ages to arrive, but when they do they always arrive in sets of three (in Britain "you wait ages for a bus, then two come along at once!").
The day you forget your umbrella, it pours with rain.
When graphing, the graph paper is always one square too small for the perfect scale
When caught in a traffic jam, the lane that you are in will always be the slowest to move. (This joke was played out in the opening sequence of the film Office Space, where one of the main characters changed lanes multiple times, all in vain as the traffic around him moved.)
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
Every solution breeds new problems.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
A Smith & Wesson beats four aces.
Junk will grow to fill the available cupboard space.
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.
If you make it idiot-proof, someone will make a better idiot.
The light at the end of the tunnel is that of an oncoming train.
When you put your pants on without looking — they will always be on backwards.
A series of events will go wrong in the most negative sequence.
Airline Travel Variation: The time you have to catch a flight is inversely proportional to the distance to the gate.
50/50/90-If there is a 50/50 chance to get it right, there is a 90% chance that you will get it wrong.
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Unwritten Physical Laws
Quote:
Linear Mode
