murphy's law

3 definitions found

murphy's law - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Murphy's Law
      n 1: humorous axiom stating that anything that can go wrong will
           go wrong [syn: Murphy's Law, Sod's Law]

murphy's law - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Murphy's Law
  
     <humour> (Or "Sod's Law") 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
     because 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 then label it "THIS
     WAY UP"; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you
     make the design asymmetrical (see also the anecdote under
     magic smoke).
  
     Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the
     rocket-sled experiments that were done by the US Air Force in
     1949 to test human acceleration tolerances (USAF project
     MX981).  One experiment involved a set of 16 accelerometers
     mounted to different parts of the subject's body.  There were
     two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount, and somebody
     methodically installed all 16 the wrong way around.  Murphy
     then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the
     test 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!
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1998-02-14)
  

murphy's law - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  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 because 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 then label it
     "THIS WAY UP"; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you
  make
     the design asymmetrical (see also the anecdote under magic smoke).
  
     Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of McDonnell-Douglas's quality-control
     engineers on the rocket-sled experiments that 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 mounted to
     different parts of the subject's body. There were two ways each
  sensor
     could be glued to its mount, and somebody methodically installed all
     16 in a replacement set the wrong way around. Murphy then made the
     original form of his pronouncement, which the test subject (Major
  John
     Paul Stapp) mis-quoted (apparently in the more general form "Whatever
     can go wrong, will go wrong)" 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 more correctly referred to as Finagle's Law. The
     memetic drift apparent in these mutants clearly demonstrates Murphy's
     Law acting on itself!