werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (11/13/84)
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This is a reposting from net.jokes.d with a bibliography at the end.
People have been claiming things go wrong seemingly forever, however
Murphy's Law seems to codify it rather well.
The author of Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong
claimed (the dictionary as his source) that Murphy's Law was origin
unknown. In time for volume II , he recieved a letter from someone who
actually knew the answer.
Apparently during the X-15 project, a particular part kept failing and
it was traced to faulty wiring on one technicians part. A visiting
Captain, named Ed Murphy, remarked "If he can do it wrong, he will."
Later, when the project was going well, someone wrote into the
report, that the reason for that success was a strict adherence to
(you guessed it) Murphy's Law. It has been a part of the language
ever since, though it has undergone the metamorphisis to "If it can
go wrong, it will."
Capt. (ret.) Murphy was interviewed a few years ago in (I believe)
Science 8?, and claimed that he did not like the current formulation
since it relied too much on fate, rather than human error, which was
the way he originally intended.
Oh well, I guess, if Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
Bibliography: Murphy's Law and other reasons why things go wrong
Arthur Bloch, Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, 1979 (paper)
Murphy's Law Book II, same stats, 1980
--
Craig Werner
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What do you expect? Watermelons are out of season!