Murphy's Law

Captain Ed Murphy really did exist and you can read how his laws came about here.

MURPHY'S LAWS

• Nothing is as easy as it looks.
• Everything takes longer than you think.
• Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
• 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. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
• If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
• Mother nature is a bitch.
• It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
• Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
• Every solution breeds new problems

The USAF Flight Safety magazine, March 1993, provided us with the following corollaries:

• It will go wrong at the worst possible moment.
• Nothing is as easy as it first appears.
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one causing the most damage will be the one to fail.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• If you tinker with anything long enough, it will break.
• Everything takes longer than you think.
• When things seem to be going your way, look carefully in the opposite direction.
• The crew bus always pulls away from the transit ramp when you pull the throttles to cutoff.
• If a regulation is not obeyed, another more complicated one will be written.
• The most important turnpoint is on the edge of the map.
• Frequency changes are always made while you're folding the map.
• Once unfolded, maps cannot be refolded in the same way.
• Stuck mikes happen only when you happen to be singing.
• Two safety officers flying together, aren't.
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

Last updated: 14 April, 2003 13:33