Doc Jargon delves into the origin of Murphy's Law

Photo By Collen McGee | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army.  

UNITED STATES

04.13.2023

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Dear Doc Jargon,

After spending just six months in the Army, I’ve become familiar — really familiar — with Murphy’s Law. What I’m not sure about is how Murphy’s Law became a thing. Was there a guy named Murphy who had horrible luck or was a duffle bag of a Soldier at one time?

Sincerely,
Hoping to Break this Law


Dear Future Lawbreaker,

From the sounds of your letter, I’m hoping you are able to bust that law right off your horizon! It’s no fun being haunted by the consequences of Murphy’s Law. Thanks for asking about how the term became, well, law.
In 1947, the Army Air Corps separated into its own branch of the military and with it went an Army pilot, Capt. Edward A. Murphy who later became an engineer. Murphy spent his life as an engineer studying reliability and safety with a goal of preventing human error. He was an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981. The project goal was to see how much of a sudden stop a human could endure in a crash.
Murphy traveled from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to Edwards AFB, California, with a set of sensors to place on the human volunteer who was the passenger on a sled built to test how much the body can take. Those sensors captured data, which would reduce the need for repeated trials. Murphy’s assistant connected them — backward. When the sensors failed to work, Murphy was quoted as saying, "If there are two ways to do something, and one of those ways will result in disaster, he'll do it that way."
The human crash-test dummy, a physician named Col. Paul Sapp, was known for his sense of humor and wit. He restated the expression during a press conference and called it Murphy’s Law. He told the press that it meant "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."
Sapp had personal experience with the law as the repeated experiments caused him several broken bones and a few burst blood vessels in his eyes.
Murphy was once quoted as saying that the axiom was to remind researchers to be diligent about looking for pitfalls to prevent accidents. I’m guessing that is still a good way to interpret it. Murphy himself must have broken his own law often as he lived to be 72.

• Date Taken: 04.13.2023
• Date Posted: 04.12.2023 17:41
• Story ID: 442519
• Location: US