# Anything that can go wrong, will. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791 "2000-01-04T23:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigRoryG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigRoryG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigRoryG)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/1 "2000-01-04T23:35:00Z")
So who is this Murphy fellow? Does he have a first name? Is that hsi first name, and if so, does he have a last name? What is/was ( I assume was) his station in life? Murphy doesn’t sound like the name of a Greek philosopher… * * * “C’mon, it’s not even tomorrow yet…” - Rupert If you need a graphic solution, [http:\ alk.to\Piglet](http://talk.to%5CPiglet) ---
**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/2 "2000-01-04T23:40:00Z")
Well audie murphy was a world war II hero and a movie …oh wait wrong murphy * * * “Look honey, there’s the little dipper, I’d show you the big dipper but my zipper is stuck.” -aha ---
**Author:** ![tenspeedjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenspeedjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenspeedjohn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/3 "2000-01-05T00:34:00Z")
## I think he was a lawyer. Stop Continental Drift ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/4 "2000-01-05T00:41:00Z")
Being a very special friend of mine and principle guider of my life, I just called him Joe. We are on a first name basis. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzy-wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b38774/32.png) [@fuzzy-wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzy-wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/5 "2000-01-05T01:10:00Z")
You started your topic with…Anything that can go wrong, will Well…how do you know that it started out going right? It could have STARTED out going wrong and then started going right wooo too much work today * * * “Do or do not, there is no try” - Yoda ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/6 "2000-01-05T01:25:00Z")
From the _Free Online Dictionary of Computing_: > [@](#): > > **Murphy’s Law** > > \ (Also “Sod’s Law” and “Finagle’s Second Law of Dynamic Negatives”) The correct, _original_ Murphy’s Law reads: “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.” This is a principle of defensive design, cited here because it is usually given in mutant forms less descriptive of the challenges of design for {lusers}. For example, you don’t make a two-pin plug symmetrical and then label it “THIS WAY UP”; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you make the design asymmetrical (see also the anecdote under {magic smoke}). > > Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the rocket-sled experiments that were done by the US Air Force in 1949 to test human acceleration tolerances (USAF project MX981). One experiment involved a set of 16 accelerometers mounted to different parts of the subject’s body. There were two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount, and somebody methodically installed all 16 the wrong way around. Murphy then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the test subject (Major John Paul Stapp) quoted at a news conference a few days later. > > Within months "Murphy’s Law’ had spread to various technical cultures connected to aerospace engineering. Before too many years had gone by variants had passed into the popular imagination, changing as they went. Most of these are variants on “Anything that can go wrong, will”; this is sometimes referred to as {Finagle’s Law}. The memetic drift apparent in these mutants clearly demonstrates Murphy’s Law acting on itself! FOLDOC is available online, but it’s not a very reliable citation. I’d suggest aome online searching to verify all the details above, but IIRC it’s correct. -andros- ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/7 "2000-01-05T17:28:00Z")
From ‘The official explanations’ by Paul Dickson, ISBN 0 09 926650 4 'Capt. Ed Murphy announced the basic Law in 1949… Many people believe the real author was Ambassador Robert Murphy. He served 40 years in the US Foreign Service…In the late 1920’s Murphy and Mgr Pacelli, Apostolic Delegate to Bavaria, reported that Hitler was unlikely to have any significant effect on Germany…Some years later, after Pacelli became Pope, Murphy reminded him of their consensus. ‘Ah, yes’ replied his Holiness, ‘that was before I became infallible.’ Also from the book: Mrs. Murphy’s Law - anything that can go wrong, will go wrong WHILE HE IS OUT OF TOWN. Murphy’s constant - All constants are variables. Murphy’s Law of Product Geography - The extent of problems with any new product varies directly with the distance between buyer and seller. Plus: If you look like your passport photo, you aren’t well enough to travel. You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word. * * * Why doesn’t the sun come out at night when the light would be more useful? (Pratchett) ---
**Author:** ![Crystalguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Crystalguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crystalguy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2000, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anything-that-can-go-wrong-will/5791/8 "2000-01-05T17:43:00Z")
“Anything that starts well will end badly.” “Anything that starts badly will end badly.”