When It Rains, It Pours

Greetings Dear Reader!

"Anything that can go wrong; will go wrong." -Edward Murphy

Captain Edward A. Murphy

Expect the worst, they say, and the best will happen. This statement contradicts with the concept of positive thinking. So why expect the worse? Answer this question: have you ever tried to insert a USB drive in your laptop and it didn't fit, so you flipped it and tried again, but you didn't succeed this time either. Then you again flip it, try once more and voila! It fit! Consider another situation where you're driving a bike and are at a certain distance from a car which is parked at the side of the road. As soon as you pass besides the car, the door of the car facing your side opens. Bad luck? Or you work all night on an assignment which is due next day and forget it at home?

People who dismiss the above incidents as mere coincidences or bad luck might not have heard the name of Edward Murphy, hence they are unaware of Murphy's Law. To add to your knowledge bank, Captain Edward A. Murphy was an engineer working for the US Air Force in the rocket-sled experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to determine and measure the effect of gravity during sudden acceleration/deceleration, as well as descents and ascents of a jet plane on the pilots. During a trial in 1949, Captain Murphy observed that the data of heart beat, muscular tension, respiration and blood pressure, etc. was not properly captured or recorded by the gadgets. Thus the strain taken by the pilot went in vain. Upon closer examination, Murphy concluded that the wiring of all the 16 gadgets, which was possible to do in 2 ways- the right way and the wrong way, was done the wrong way. Hence Murphy pronounced the statement- "If anything has to go wrong, it certainly will."

Since 1960, more than 100 books have been written on Murphy'a law. Plenty of instances prove that the Murphy's law stands correct. Some of them are mentioned below-

• When there is a possibility of several things to go wrong, the ones which can cause the maximum damage will happen first.

• Upon searching for a pair of scissors methodically in 25 places, the highest probability is that you'll find it in the 25th place.

• After finishing the washing of your car, the first rain of the season will pour down incessantly for 4 hours, soon after you finish washing your car.

• If you manage to get 35% discount after an hour bargaining at the store, chances are that you'll find the same item being offered at 55% discount in the next shop.

• A lost needle will only be found by a person who is walking barefoot.

• The other queue always moves faster.

• In order to get a bank loan, first you must prove that you don't need money.

• If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

Many people experience these situations from time to time, and when all seems to be going well, there is a constant apprehension that something is not right! After all, why does the coach that you reserved in a train is always at the far end from the staircase especially when you have a lot of heavy luggage to haul? Why does the passbook always fall in the puddle of water with the printed side facing down and the plastic-coated, waterproof side facing up?

A famous example of Murphy's law is the 'butter toast experiment'. The experiment is as follows-

The buttered toast experiment

The law states- "The possibility of the buttered side of the toast facing down when fallen from a height is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet."

When you drop a slice of toast it always falls with the buttered side down and the fur and dirt sticks to it. Researchers have even simulated this in real life to study the phenomena but have not been able to reach a satisfactory conclusion. Though it has been scientifically proven that the height of the table is not high enough to give time and space to a buttered toast to take a full spin during its fall from the table, so it manages just half a turn before falling on the ground.

Increasing the height of the table is not the solution because a shoulder-height table is ideally not comfortable to have breakfast on. And we cannot increase our height as nature has made us just tall enough to balance the pull of gravity on our spine. And suppose that we increase our height then we would shatter our head every time we fall down! Therefore we have to live with the possibility of the toast landing butter-side down. Forever.

To sum it up, some may call it bad luck, ill omen or an unfortunate turn of events but those are mere puppets; the master puppeteer is always behind the curtain- Murphy's law. 

That's a wrap, folks! But before ending this post, it's time for an exclusive peek into the topic of discussion of the next post. There are many ways of predicting future; crystal balls, tarot cards and palmistry, to name a few. But one person in history is famous for making accurate predictions. An ace apothecary, he has made prophecies which have been proven correct worldwide. Know more about this famous personality and how he did what he did in the next post. Bye! :)