murphy's law? I plead the 5th?

[Vinss-T]

ive heard people say this a lot but never cared to ask. so can anyone explain what exactly is murphy's law & why people say it at certain situations?

same with "i plead the 5th".. WTF??

 

[taezee]

yeah they made a mistake it should be JAVIS LAW,,,


Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base.

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.

One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it."

The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.

Actually, what he did was take an old law that had been around for years in a more basic form and give it a name.

Shortly afterwards, the Air Force doctor (Dr. John Paul Stapp) who rode a sled on the deceleration track to a stop, pulling 40 Gs, gave a press conference. He said that their good safety record on the project was due to a firm belief in Murphy's Law and in the necessity to try and circumvent it.

 

[taezee]

Aerospace manufacturers picked it up and used it widely in their ads during the next few months, and soon it was being quoted in many news and magazine articles. Murphy's Law was born.

The Northrop project manager, George E. Nichols, had a few laws of his own. Nichols' Fourth Law says, "Avoid any action with an unacceptable outcome."

The doctor, well-known Col. John P. Stapp, had a paradox: Stapp's Ironical Paradox, which says, "The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."

Nichols is still around. At NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, he's the quality control manager for the Viking project to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars.

 

[michelle28]

plead the 5th = to remain silent in order to not incriminate yourself
people say it when they're asked a question that they really don't want to answer.

 

[Vinss-T]

ohh much appreciated taezee & i like the story behind it. i coulda sworn murphy's law was about the luck of the irish.. i dunno

and michelle thanx a lot too, so now i know 2 new expressions :stoned LOL wow i think i need sleep or smthng now

 

[ChuckD]

and there are your answers.

 

[michelle28]

😉

 

[Gornicevo]

plead the 5th = to remain silent in order to not incriminate yourself
people say it when they're asked a question that they really don't want to answer.

I would also add "the 5th" refers to fifth amendment (the right to remain silent)