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Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (January 11, 1918-July 17, 1990)
    Born in Canal Zone, Panama
    US Army pilot and aerospace engineer
    Research and Development Officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
    Participated (briefly) in rocket-sled experiments at Edwards AFB testing human tolerance of g-forces during rapid deceleration (1948)
    Namesake for 'Murphy's Law,' usually stated as 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'

Why he might be annoying:

    As part of the rocket sled experiments, he provided electronic strain gauges to be attached to the harness worn by the test subject in order to provide a second measure of the g-forces.
    During the first test, the strain gauges all read zero, because they had been installed backwards.
    According to some witnesses, he proceeded to blame the technician who had attached the gauges, saying 'If there is any way to do it wrong, he will.'
    He considered Murphy's law a key principal of defensive design (the need to identify and plan for worst-case scenarios) and found the commonplace interpretation (essentially, 'Shit happens') to be 'ridiculous, trivial and erroneous.'
    It was hardly an original observation.
    For example, magician Nevil Maskelyne wrote in 1908, 'It is an experience common to all men to find that, on any special occasion,... everything that can go wrong will go wrong.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He served in China and Burma during World War II.
    After the failure of the first test, he modified the design so the strain gauges could only be attached in the correct way.
    During a press conference, a reporter asked Dr. John Stapp, one of the test subjects, why there had been no serious injuries in the rocket-sled experiments (1951).
    Stapp replied that it was because they always took 'Murphy's Law' into consideration, thus popularizing the name.
    After leaving the Air Force, he worked on crew escape systems for experimental aircraft, such as the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane and X-15 rocket plane, and safety and life support systems for the Apollo space program.
    Appropriately, he was good friends with Laurence J. Peter, namesake of the Peter Principle. ('In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.')
    As a fundamental law of nature, Murphy's Law is up there with E=mc2 and Newton's laws of motion.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 84.62% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 9 Votes: 22.22% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 105 Votes: 48.57% Annoying