# Please explicitly define Murphy's Law

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explicitly-define-murphys-law/385593>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 26, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explicitly-define-murphys-law/385593 "2006-12-26T06:04:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explicitly-define-murphys-law/385593/21 "2006-12-28T17:58:20Z")

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Huh. I disagree with all the posts so far.

Murphy’s Law, if you go by what actually happened to Edward Murphy to make them come up with the law, is “If anything can go wrong, it will.” Murphy’s Law is not a post-ironic statement, and it doesn’t mean “life sucks” or “shit happens.” It’s an observation of reality; if it is possible for a mistake to be made, or an accident to befall you, sooner or later it will. The idea behind the law is that when designing or planning something you’re supposed to design or plan it in a way to make it impossible for things to go wrong… as Murphy wished he had done with the sensors that were plugged in backwards. Had they been designed so you couldn’t plug them in backwards, the problem wouldn’t have happened. But it did go wrong, because it COULD go wrong.

Murphy’s Law is at the heart of a lot of good engineering, design, and safety work. If you go into a factory and see the various safety precautions built into machines - dead man switches, panic buttons, shields, block outs, etc. etc. - they’re all manifestations of Murphy’s Law. If an accident can happen, it will, so they design things so accidents CAN’T happen.

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**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explicitly-define-murphys-law/385593/22 "2006-12-29T16:06:46Z")

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**Johnny L.A.** , a belated “Thank You!” for educating me on the origins of Murphy’s Law. I’m pretty certain it _was_ you who first provided the link.

**H3Knuckles** , I have never heard of such a pessimistic version of the law, but if it exists or is defined, perhaps it should be called Marvin’s Law. But **RickJay** has a very good point – Murphy’s Law is used improperly by most people trying to quote it. It is a very simple statement that can be used as a warning (or guide) when considered properly.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explicitly-define-murphys-law/385593/23 "2006-12-29T19:20:18Z")

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Well, I read an interview with Murphy several years and his version was that if you give people two ways of doing things, someone is sure to do it wrong. (This is essentially the Wiki version). But it was essentially a design principle: **Don’t** give people two ways to do something (unless they both work). All the other versions are just cynicisms, but Murphy’s is–or ought to be–a principle of engineering.

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