We’ve all heard something to the effect, it’s just Murphy’s Law. Well, that got me to thinking — who the heck is this Murphy and how did he get his own law?
“Murphy’s Law” states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So is this a real law, or only a superstition?
In the UK, Murphy’s Law is more popularly known as Sod’s Law. A “poor sod” is a term that dates back to the Middle Ages and means “an unlucky fellow.” I found along with Sod’s Law listed a corollary called Finagle’s Law that says that bad things will always happen, perhaps especially to good people, at the most inconvenient times.
But back to Murphy’s Law….. in 1948 the Air Force was working on a research project at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The project, codenamed MX981, involved high speed rockets and deceleration to determine their effects on humans. One of the experiments was to propel a rocket sled attached to a 1.9 mile track to speeds of 200 mph and hit the brakes to stop the sled in seconds. The team of data collectors was led by Capt. Edward Murphy. Murphy was a West Point graduate and World War II veteran . Murphy assigned an assistant to wire four electronic strain gauges, or transducers, to shoulder straps to measure the G-forces on various parts of the body. When the experiment was run, all the sensors came back with zero readings — no data. When the team investigated, they discovered that each sensor had been wired backward. Cant. Murphy, disgusted at the lack of attention to detail said, “If there’s any way these guys can do it wrong, they will.”
The overall commander of the MX981 project, Lt. Col John Stapp, told a reporter during an interview that when working on projects like this, his crew operated under “Murphy’s Law, if anything can go wrong, it will.” He was explaining that the Air Force anticipated possible failures, assuming a worst-case scenario, an to address those possibilities before they happened.
Stapp actually coined many “laws” while working on aerospace tests. Before Murphy’s Law, his most well known was “Stapp’s Law,” which was similar to Murphy’s — “The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle.”
So Col. Stapp didn’t coin Murphy’s Law, but he was most instrumental in making it a popular expression, and it was eventually engraved on a plaque at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Murphy wasn’t happy at the misinterpretation of his new “law.” Murphy intended the saying to be a way to approach experimentation with the utmost defense and preparedness for something to go wrong, in order to achieve the highest caliber of safety and success.
Even today, Murphy’s Law is widely misunderstood and can be interpreted many ways.
But if we take a positive look at it, “anything” can be both the good and the bad.
Murphy’s Law can certainly be a catchphrase for open-minded preparedness.
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