Bad luck pioneer celebrates a hundredth birthday

amsterdam - His name is not so popular. Because when it is pronounced it is usually when a situation does not go as hoped. Edward E. Murphy was the creator of perhaps the world's best-known law: Murphy's Law. The American aerospace engineer would have become 100 years today.

For those who want to be briefed, there are actually two Murphy laws. The first is official: When there is more than one way to do something, and one of those ways will result in a catastrophe, someone will do it that way. The second is more familiar: If there is a way people can do it wrong, they will do so. Or: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Have you just smeared a sandwich and are you accidentally dropping it? There is a good chance that the buttered side will end up on the dirty floor: Murphy's law. The aquarium is leaking: the law of Murphy. The bus is just gone, the traffic lights are all on red and the computer does not do what you want: the law of Murphy.

Edward E. Murphy, born on 11 January 1918 near the Panama Canal, worked as a captain with the US Air Force. He first came up with the sentence during an investigation into the speed that a human body can endure. A test dummy with sixty sensors was subjected to violent G-forces in the desert. However, the results proved unusable because the sensors were mounted in a wrong way. Murphy would have said his legendary words.

Man is helpless, the law actually teaches. Because whatever we do and how well we do our best, it will always go wrong. One thing is certain: Murphy's Law is the perfect excuse when something is wrong. Because when things are going well, we owe that entirely to ourselves, of course, but when it does not go as well as we want? Then we are happy to blame Murphy.

Are there errors in this article? You guessed it: the law of Murphy...