Anything that can go wrong,

Will go wrong. Yes, it is the infamous Murphy’s Law. A remark made by a disgusted engineer took the form of an adage, which is widely used today in many of the daily life situations.

It was in 1949, when the U.S Air-Force was carrying out experiments to check the effect of a sudden deceleration on a person in a crash. When the series of tests was started, the instruments for the measurement of gravitational force on the chimpanzees provided no reading. Captain Edward A. Murphy, an aerospace engineer working on the project found that the sensors were improperly installed; therefore, no reading could be expected. An irritated Murphy shouted about the technician responsible “If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will.”

After the correct installation of the gauges, tests were conducted successfully. In a press conference, a question was raised by the media person that why there weren’t any injuries in the tests. Dr. John Stapp, a physician at U.S Military replied “It’s because we always take Murphy’s Law in consideration, and we counter all the possible failures before they even occur”.

This was the coinage of the world’s most famous adage ever. It was later modified to “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. With the passage of time, almost all the real life scenarios which tend to trouble us, like failure of a planning, getting late for a bus were termed as Murphy’s Laws.

To date, there are thousands of adages which are now named as Murphy’s Laws. Remember, these laws were not created by Murphy, but even then they are called Murphy’s Laws. They are really interesting and often reflect the daily situations experienced by all of us in a manner similar to the law itself. Some of my most favorite Murphy’s Laws are:

• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
  Extreme version:
  If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the FIRST to go wrong.
• 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.
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
• In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right … something is wrong.
• No matter how perfect things are made to appear, Murphy’s Law will take effect and screw it up.

Apart from the above laws, there are some of the special laws which have been developed by various people around the world, but will always be accredited to Murphy.

Murphy’s Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.

The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.

Murphy’s Law of Research
Enough research will tend to support whatever theory.

Research supports a specific theory depending on the amount of funds dedicated to it.

Murphy’s Laws of Gravitation:

• A falling object will always land where it can do the most damage.
• A shatterproof object will always fall on the only surface hard enough to crack or break it.
• A paint drip will always land on the carpet and will not be discovered until it has dried.

• A valuable dropped item will always fall into an inaccessible place (a diamond ring down the drain, for example) – or into the garbage disposal while it is running.
• The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

Murphy’s Transportation Laws:

• If you think you have lots of time before your bus, you read the timetable wrong.
• If you’re early the bus is late. If you’re late, the bus was early.
• The bus you plan to take always leaves five minutes before you reach the bus stop. The bus you do take is always ten minutes late.
• While at the railway station waiting for the train, you decide to go in the cafeteria for dining, the train will arrive the moment you start your dinner.

• If you seem to catch the last bus of the day, it left two minutes earlier.
• The more times you ask the driver to tell you when to get off the bus, the chance he won’t tell you is bigger.

Murphy’s Educational Laws:

• A subject interesting to the teacher will bore students.

• Students who are doing better are credited with working harder. If children start to do poorly, the teacher will be blamed.
• Eighty percent of the final exam will be based on the one lecture you missed and from the one book you didn’t read.
• Every instructor assumes that you have nothing else to do except study for that instructor’s course.
• The library will close 5 minutes before you remember that you left your book bag inside.
  Extension: It will be Saturday, and it won’t open until Monday.
  Extension: Your half-finished term paper (due Monday morning) and all your research will be inside.

• On a test day, at least 15% of the class will be absent

• First Law of Final Exams
  Pocket calculator batteries that have lasted all semester will fail during the math final.
  And: If you bring extra batteries, they will be defective.
• Second Law of Final Exams
  In your toughest final, the most distractingly attractive student in class will sit next to you for the first time.

More Laws:

• No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you’ve bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper.
• The other queue always moves faster.
• Your best golf shots always occur when playing alone.
• The worst golf shots always occur when playing with someone you are trying to impress.

• If you want something bad enough, chances are you won’t get it.

Now read all these laws carefully and you will notice that you have been through most of these situations in your life many a times. Hence it was proved that Murphy’s Laws work and the chance of the failure of any law of Murphy stands no chance.

Remember once again,

No matter how perfect things are made to appear, Murphy’s Law will take effect and screw it up.