Murphy's Law $1.69 AUD
Category: Ideas & Concepts
Murphy’s Law is a tongue-in-cheek and rather pessimistic adage of eight simple words: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. The translation of these words into ‘Murphy’s Law’ was in honour of US aerospace engineer Edward Aloysius Murphy Junior. Legend has it that in 1949 Murphy made an offhand comment to his colleagues while working at an Air Force Base in California. His team was testing human tolerance for g-forces during rapid deceleration. The experiments involved Air Force officer John Stapp being strapped into a sled moving at great speed. As the sled decelerated, an instrument was supposed to take readings of the g-forces Stapp experienced. However, the instrument Murphy was using gave no reading. When the problem was looked into, it was discovered that a technician had actually wired the instrument backwards. A frustrated Murphy commented: “If there’s any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it!”
