The first time I was introduced to Murphy's laws was during my Uni. years, when a professor was drawing a diagram showing the effect of wind loads on structures, and he just produced an unrealistic wind diagram and directions. One of the students told the professor that this worst case scenario cannot exist in reality and the professor replied that according to Murphy's law, "If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.", and he showed a detailed example on a building exposed to the same wind loads, and how the wind changed direction to apply pressure on top and on the opposite side of the building.
After reading Murphy's laws, I was amazed to know that his laws were studied seriously, and that his laws are widely applied in Engineering procedure and design. I wanted to test it for myself and started noticing things that went wrong and how they went wrong.
1) For the buttered toast, I have a bad habit of eating in my lounge, I dropped the toast a few times, but one thing was in common among these incidents. The toast always fell on the buttered side(same thing for Jam, cheese, and any other spread).
2) On my daily trip to work, I take a short cut using an unpaved road where I have to cross a creek using a very narrow bridge, on more than 80% of the times I crossed that bridge, I met the only vehicle travelling in the opposite direction at that time of the day, already crossing the bridge, and I always had to pull over to one side until the other vehicle passes.
3) When I was living in Egypt, I once had to go somewhere in Zamalek, I drove the car and my brother sat in the passenger's side. We were arguing all the time as we were lost and every time I tried a turn I get lost more, until once we agreed to turn left, just a feeling that we both had that turning left was going to get us back on the right track. But then we both remembered the law that said that," if you have two choices, you'll always choose the wrong one". We chose left, but we tried to beat Murphy's laws by choosing the right option. I turned right and it took me half an hour to go back to the same point where I started from, turned left this time and I reached my destination in less than 5 minutes.
**Read the laws, they are funny but most of them are true and applicable.
About Me
- Gypo
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Each thing I do I rush through so I can do something else. In such a way do the days pass - a blend of stock car racing and the never ending building of a gothic cathedral. Through the windows of my speeding car, I see all that I love falling away: books unread, jokes untold, landscapes unvisited. And why? What treasure do I expect in my future? Rather it is the confusion of childhood loping behind me, the chaos in the mind, the failure chipping away at each success. Glancing over my shoulder I see its shape and so move forward, as someone in the woods at night might hear the sound of approaching feet and stop to listen, then, instead of silence he hears some creature trying to be silent. What else can he do but run? Rushing blindly down the path, stumbling, struck in the face by sticks; the other ever closer, yet not really hurrying or out of breath, teasing its kill.
2 comments:
I am not convinced that if you have 2 choices you will always choose the wrong one!
On what basis?
mesh 3aref, but it doesn't apply to choices in life. It's only applicable for things that depend on luck or chance, like when you're lost and you come to a T intersection where you have to choose one of two directions, left or right, according to Murphy you'll always choose the one that'll keep you lost.
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