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aussie_paul


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Murphy's Law..
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At last, confirmation of Murphy's Law with a wonderful Irish explanation.
Murphy drops some buttered toast on the kitchen floor and it lands butter-side-up. He looks down
in astonishment, for he knows that it's a law of nature of the universe that buttered toast always
falls butter-side-down. So he rushes round to the presbytery to fetch Father Flanagan.
He tells the priest that a miracle has occurred in his kitchen. He won't say what it is, so he asks
Fr. Flanagan to come and see it with his own eyes.
He leads Fr. Flanagan into the kitchen and asks him what he sees on the floor.
"Well," says the priest, "it's pretty obvious. Someone has dropped some buttered toast on the floor
and then, for some reason, they flipped it over so that the butter was on top."
"No, Father, I dropped it and it landed like that!" exclaimed Murphy.
"Oh my Lord," says Fr. Flanagan, "dropped toast never falls with the butter side up. It's a miracle.
Wait... it's not for me to say it's a miracle. I'll have to report this matter to the Bishop and he'll
have to deal with it. He'll send some people round to interview you, take photos, etc."
A thorough investigation is conducted, not only by the archdiocese but by scientists sent over
from the Curia in Rome. No expense is spared. There is great excitement in the town as everyone
knows that a miracle will bring in much needed tourism revenue.
Then, after 8 long weeks and with great fanfare, the Bishop announces the final ruling.
"It is certain that some kind of an extraordinary event took place in Murphy's kitchen, quite outside
the natural laws of the universe. Yet the Holy See must be very cautious before ruling a miracle.
All other explanations must be ruled out.
Unfortunately, in this case, it has been declared "No Miracle", because they think that
Murphy may have buttered the toast on the wrong side!


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dorian


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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1331810/Breakfast-at-Murphys-or-why-the-toast-lands-butter-side-down.html

Breakfast at Murphy's (or why the toast lands butter-side down)

By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent

27 May 2001 - 12:00am

NO longer ridiculed as a myth, scientists have proved that Murphy's Law is true: if toast can land butter-side down, it will do.

Lurpak, the butter manufacturer, was setting up an educational project for schools, and wondered if I could devise an experiment based around Murphy's Law of toast. Together with staff from the Maths Year 2000 programme of the Department for Education, we drew up plans for the biggest-ever investigation of Murphy's Law, involving schoolchildren from across Britain.

The Lurpak Tumbling Toast Test began in March and ended earlier this month; more than 1,000 children took part, with toast tumbling off plates more than 21,000 times - making it by far and away the biggest-ever study of Murphy's Law.

The results, I'm relieved to say, were in complete agreement with the theory. The first experiment, with its 62 per cent face-down rate, clearly confirmed Murphy's Law. In the second test, designed to probe the effect of butter, the toast still landed 58 per cent of the time on the side marked "B" - a rate just four per cent lower than that with butter. This confirmed that, despite what many believe, butter is not the prime cause of the trouble.

The real culprit was revealed by the outcome of the final experiment. Of more than 2,000 tumbles from heights above 8ft, the toast landed face-down only 47 per cent of the time - confirming that it is only from such a great height that toast has much chance of landing butter-side up.

The children reported their results via the Maths Year 2000 website and it was clear that they relished the chance to use science to test their own theories about what was happening. Many came up with suggestions for beating Murphy's Law - along with evidence to back their claims. My favourite was from Hannah, seven, at the Good Shepherd Primary School in west London: "Butter the other side."

 



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Magnarc


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Murphy's law states that,

"If things can go wrong they will"

Smiths law;

"Murphy was an optimist"



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