p2pnet.net OT News:- You know that widely held belief that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong? And at the worst possible time?

It’s usually called Murphy’s Law and it’s for real, says The Courier-Mail from Brisbane, Austrlia, quoting a panel of experts.

For doubters, here’s the formula: ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10))

So if you know the formula, you should be able to work your way around it. Right?

Right, says the Courier-Mail, going on that the equation was developed a psychologist, a mathematician and an economist commissioned by British Gas.

“The lesson from this is that, to cut the seemingly unbeatable Murphy’s Law gremlins down to size, you need to change one of the elements in the equation,” psychologist Dr David Lewis says, states the report.

“So, if you haven’t got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it.”

That’s it? Yep.

But Lewis, “added a note of caution”.

There is, of course, a Sod’s Law factor to the equation, he pointed out, namely: “If you judge your ratings wrongly, you might become too optimistic - and calamity will strike.”

How was Murphy’s Law disovered? “It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash,” says the Murphy’s Law Site.

==================

See:-

Edward A. Murphy - Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, Murphy’s Law Site, March 3, 1978

formula - How you can break Murphy’s Law, The Courier-Mail, October 8, 2004

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2004 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 3344 times