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Scientists Define Murphy's Law

Jesrad writes "A mathematician, a psychologist and an economist commissioned by British Gas have finally put into mathematical terms what we all knew: that things don't just go wrong, they do so at the most annoying moment.The formula, ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)), indicates that to beat Murphy's Law (a.k.a. Sod's Law) you need to change one of the parameter: U for urgency, C for complexity, I for importance, S for skill, F for frequency and A for aggravation. Or in the researchers' own words: "If you haven't got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it." Don't you like it when maths back up common sense ?"

2 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Er... by GlassUser · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You still take slashdot seriously? It's like a michael moore movie - entertainment that calls itself something else, but that's just part of the show.

  2. BS, yes. by chadjg · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Sure he does, but not his spelling

    Now, if we could get him to lay off the funky color schemes in the sub-sections we'd be getting somewhere!

    --
    Why do I have this? I don't smoke.