Murphy’s Laws

[chimp3]

We all know the standard one: Anything which can go wrong, WILL go wrong. 

What others have you run across or made up on you own? My personal favourites are the Thee Laws Of Infernal Dynamics:

1. An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.
2. An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.
3. The amount of energy required to change either of the states will always be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the project impractical.

Boru

I was a member of a restaurant association in the '80s. One thing they did was have a monthly meeting in one of the members establishment with a speaker of interest. One month the topic was "You can't manage a crisis". You end the crisis then start managing again. The speaker was Murphy of Murphy's Law. (When my life becomes chaotic I attribute it to shaking hands with Murphy.) He told the story of how he was directing the most expensive single scientific experiment at that time. I think it was around $185,000. A jet engine on a track in the desert with sensors along the track to measure velocity. It was a one shot deal, no second chance. Everything was a go. The engine shot down the track and nothing. A single wire from the sensors was not connected and no readings were obtained. Murphy said that in his summary he stated "If it's possible it will happen". He said the first media reports said he wrote "If it can go wrong it will". The first example of Murphy's Law. This meeting was in Scottsdale Arizona. He was a local. It was fun to have bagels and coffee with Murphy himself.