Murphy's Law - what is it?

Recently at Ullrich am Zoo

The sign on the front door of the supermarket I had overlooked in the pouring rain. "That makes 67.23 euros," said the cashier. And then, when I wanted to hand her my debit card: "Did not you see the sign? We have a system failure and can only accept cash.? I looked in my shopping cart. A lot, a weekly shopping. I looked in my wallet. Little, 25 euros in bills and Klimpergeld. I looked at the cashier. Nothing, not even a sympathetic smile. Someone was already grumbling behind me in line.

Mrs. Kolberg

"I do not have enough cash," I said, adding a helpless gesture. Mrs. Kolberg, as I could see from the cashier's nameplate, rolled her eyes, pressed a button, and leaned over a microphone. ? Please cancel at the three ?, it echoed through the corridors. She turned to me: "If you want to get money from the bank, you can push that car over there and come back." I pushed the car to the side, I went to fetch money, I came back dripping wet. Mrs. Kolberg was gone. My shopping cart too. Mr. Celik now sat on Frau Kolberg's place. Ah, the car. Did colleague pick up ?, he replied to my request. ?Just now.? He gestured vaguely to the fruits and vegetables.

Trials and Tribulations

I caught his colleague carefully emptying the bag of carrots I had handpicked. "Wait," I said, "the car is mine. Ask Ms. Kołobrzeg. He looked at me like something sticking to his shoe sole and wordlessly pushed the car to me. I took a new bag and gathered my carrots together. Frau Kolberg was sitting at the cash register again. Oh, there you are. What did you do with the car? Now I have to scan everything again.? She scanned everything again. ?Can you see it? Now it is 67.96 euros. I saved the explanation that the carrots, her colleague? As I said, I just saved it and kept her 70 euros. Ms. Kołobrzez said with a smile: "If you want, you can also pay by card, the system will work again." I stayed stoic, I paid with card. As I slipped the cucumber glass out of my hand while stowing away my laboriously struggling shopping and broke with a loud clinking, I barely flinched an eyelash. I did not care, it was obvious: I had been a victim of Murphy's Law.


The law

"Everything that can go wrong will go wrong." That's Murphy's law. You will not find it in any law book of this world, but in countless everyday occurrences. Why is the queue in the supermarket checkout always the slowest? Why do toothaches always occur on weekends and why do you discover a high-priced product as a special offer shortly thereafter? And why is the phone always ringing when you're sitting in the bathroom? Questions About Questions That Are Now Whole Books About Murphy's Law? to fill.

The real Murphy

But who is the mysterious Murphy to whom we owe all these adversities? Or is he a fictitious person, a desperate attempt to name the unbelievable? No, it is 1918 Panama-born Edward A. Murphy, an engineer. Murphy was supervised in 1949 by the US Air Force with a very costly experiment. He was asked to investigate the stresses that the human body can withstand under extreme accelerations. For the experiment 16 sensors had to be attached to the body of the subject. A technician actually managed to fix all sensors incorrectly and the attempt failed. Edward A. Murphy responded to this costly delay in his experiment by saying "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong?" ("Everything that can go wrong will go wrong."). How reassuring that my experience in the supermarket at least a legal basis is based.

The jam bread

One of the most cited examples of Murphy's Law is the apparent fact that a jam bread ALWAYS ends up on the jam side when it falls off the table. Scientists have investigated this phenomenon and came to the conclusion that Murphy's law does not apply. The jam-side-down-constant is rather related to the average height of a table: the jam bread starts to spin in free fall. However, the height of the table is only enough for half a turn. Ergo lands the bread (whose jam side is at the top of the fall) with the jam side down on the floor. Incidentally, this also applies to liver sausage or honey sandwiches. And finally, the tip: fold your Stullen together better. Buy now Murphy's Law for PARENTS Murphy's Law for PARENTS 6,99 ?

MURPHY'S LAW | Draw My Life 'Anything that can go wrong will go wrong' | March 2024