Murphy’s Law: Introduction, History, Variations and Examples

Murphy’s Law states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. It also states that if two or more ways are there to do anything and one of them potentially turns out to be a disaster, someone will do it. People use this law whenever something goes wrong or does not happen in the way they wished. The history of alternative versions of Murphy’s law traces back to the seventeenth century. The relevance of that law in modern society is highly regarded since this law can throw a positive light on pessimistic situations. Let’s discuss Murphy’s law in detail along with some important questions.

Key Terms: Murphy’s Law, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Law of Entropy, Idea of Disorder, Selective Bias, Light, Thermodynamics, Entropy

Also read: Brewster's Law

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What is Murphy’s Law?

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Murphy’s law is a positively expressed adage that states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. It is a widely celebrated statement due to the historical background through which Murphy's law emerged. Murphy’s law has various examples and situations relatable to our day-to-day life. It simply means that when there are multiple ways of doing a particular task or happening of an event, and there exists a way that can lead to a disaster upon implementation, then someone will surely do it. 

Murphy’s Law

There is nothing mysterious or supernatural in Murphy's law. This law simply throws light on the fact that even if we start doing something, it isn’t always necessary that things will always turn positive, rather there are high chances that things will turn out negative and can be in the worst possible way.

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History of Murphy’s Law

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The modern statement of Murphy’s law was first coined by Dr. John Stapp, a US colonel and flight surgeon at the north base in Edwards Air Force Base, California in the year 1949. The history traces back to time Captain Edward Murphy used to work as an engineer at the base and it is said that he was the first one to practically used the statement which was later called Murphy’s Law.

A well-known story of the origin of Murphy’s law says that Captain Edward Murphy in 1949 was working on developing a sensor device that can find the amount of deceleration a person can withstand or tolerate during a crash. There were 16 sensors waiting to be installed and each of them had two ways of doing that. During a check on the sensors after its installation, he found that all 16 of the sensors were installed incorrectly. He found that in the case of installing the sensors using the two ways it has, each one of them was installed only in the incorrect way. 

History of Murphy’s Law

This made Murphy say some words along the lines of ‘If there are one or two ways in doing a certain task, it is sure that it will be done wrongly always’ which basically meant ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong’. The words of Murphy were then exchanged between his colleagues and were later referred to as Murphy's law. However, there are also some historical records stating that the Murphy law existed even before the incident at the California base camp. At that time this law wasn’t generalized or had any specific validity. Alfred Holt in a report of the meeting of the Engineering Society in 1877 had stated that a member of the society, Stephen Goranson had used an alternative version of this law.

Also read: Capacitor Types

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Views of Murphy’s Law

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There had been different views and perceptions of Murphy’s law by different people. Some considered Murphy’s law while others criticized it. Some far-stretched views of others on Murphy’s law is as follows:

• According to Richard Dawkins, a British biologist and ethologist, Murphy's law doesn’t make or have any sense in it. He wasn’t in favor of considering having inanimate objects to have or react to their own personal desires. He also stated the mentality of humans in which they are more bothered and focused on times when things go wrong and blame saying it as Murphy’s law. 
• According to David Hand, a well-known professor and senior research investigator at the Imperial College noted selective bias of people regarding the law. This selective bias is because people always remember only the number of times when Murphy's law occurs occasionally but they never mention the number of times when Murphy's law goes wrong.
• Murphy’s law was always compared and associated with Law of Entropy or Second Law of Thermodynamics due to their similarity in having a tendency to a disordered state. Atanu Chatterjee had considered this similarity while formulating an expression for this law in mathematical terms and stated that this law can be made invalid if we use the principle of least action.

Also read: Snell’s Law

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Examples of Murphy’s Law

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Some examples Murphy’s law in our day-to-day life are as follows:

• If you are standing in a long queue, then you will mostly find that your queue is moving slower than the other queues in the venue.
• If you are washing a car after a lot of days, it is definite that it will rain that day.
• If you apply butter on the bread and make toast and slips, it is sure that the bread toast lands with the butter side down.

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Variations of Murphy’s Law

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Forsyth’s Second Corollary to Murphy’s Laws

“Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, the roof caves in.”

O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphy’s Laws

“Murphy was an optimist.”

Brook’s Law

“If at first, you don’t succeed, transform your data set.”

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Things to Remember

• Murphy’s law is a positive adage that states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.
• Murphy’s law has various examples and situations relatable to our day-to-day life. Some of them are the occurrence of rain on the day you wash your car, the landing of bread toast with the butter side down whenever you slip, and the slow movement of the queue you are placed in compared to others.
• Murphy's law was first said to be used by an airforce engineer named Captain Edward Murphy and coined by his colleague Dr. John Stapp in the year of 1949.
• Stephen Goranson, a member of the Engineering Society, had used an alternative version of this law in 1877 before the emergence of the concept of Murphy’s law and it stated that ‘If anything can go wrong at the sea, it surely will’.
• There are multiple views and perceptions of Murphy’s law. It is also said that Murphy's law and the Second Law of Thermodynamics are connected due to their similarity in having a tendency to a disordered state.

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