everett (12/27/82)
#N:hp-pcd:6400008:000:3513
hp-pcd!everett Dec 27 09:21:00 1982
From: Everett Kaser
hplabs!hp-pcd
Re: Murphy's Law
The following is plagerized from the Jan/Feb issue of Science83.
Murphy lives!
If there is a wrong way to do something, then someone will do it.
--Edward A. Murphy Jr.
To most people Murphy's law is a joke. But to its originator,
a real live person named Edward A. Murphy Jr., his law is a serious
maxim about mankind's fallible interactions with machines. Anyone who
confronts a piece of equipment for the first time, says Murphy, should
find out if there is a way to bollix it. Can a part be put in back-
wards? Can two wires be crossed? If so, heed Murphy's admonition and
make doubly sure that doing somthing the "wrong" way is difficult--
preferably impossible.
Murphy's law has been around since the first caveman realized
that it was always the tenderest piece of meat that fell off his
skewer into the fire. But not until 1949 was this law of nature given
the name it bears today. In that year, Air Force Major John Paul Stapp
was piloting a rocket sled in tests at Muroc ---now Edwards--- Air
Force Base to find out how much acceleration a human body could stand.
Air Force Captain Edward Murphy had developed special harness fixtures
that held 16 sensors to measure the accelerational forces bearing on
Stapp's body. The rocket sled was fired, subjecting Stapp to g-forces
approaching 40 times Earth's gravity.
Stapp released his harness and with bloodshot eyes stumbled
back to where a technician stood.
"How many gees did the sensors read?" croaked Stapp.
"Zero," said the technician nervously.
Perplexed, Stapp telephoned Murphy, who flew back from Ohio
to Muroc the next day. As it happened, there were two ways to glue
each sensor to its fixture. Someone had methodically installed all 16
the wrong way.
"If there are two or more ways to do something," Murphy pro-
nounced, "and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then
someone will do it."
Project engineer George Nichols immediately dubbed it Murphy's
law. At the press conference following the rocket sled test, Stapp
mentioned that the project's excellent safety record could be credited
to a firm belief in Murphy's law. Within a few months, Murphy's law was
being mentioned in aerospace manufacturers' ads, and the Flight Safety
Foundation began to quote it in their official bulletins.
Then the humorous variations began to appear. The most popular
version--"If something can go wrong, it will"--is anathema to the very
serious Edward Murphy. Its fatalistic acceptance of the inevitable
perverts his original concept of a sort of moral to help prevent
accidents.
As a reliability engineer for Hughes Helicopters Inc., Murphy's
current job is to make sure that his law doesn't work its will on
helicopters. He has long since abandoned hope that he will be popularly
recognized as the creator of the law that bears his name. It seems to
be his fate just because he's stuck with an ordinary name like Murphy.
---Robert L. Forward
Included with the article was a photograph of Murphy. He *does* look like his
name should be 'Murphy'.
Thanks to SCIENCE83, without whose existence this article would not have been
seen (and without whose permission it is seen here).
Thanks to my Mom, without whose existence this program would not have been
written (and without whose permission it is writing here).
Thanks to my ....
Damn, I think someone installed my CPU backwards...