Finagle's law of dynamic negatives (also known as Melody's law, Sod's Law or Finagle's corollary to Murphy's law) is usually rendered as "Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment." The term "Finagle's law" was first used by

John W. Campbell Jr. John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called '' Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...

, the influential editor of ''

Astounding Science Fiction ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...

'' (later ''Analog''). He used it frequently in his editorials for many years in the 1940s to 1960s, but it never came into general usage the way Murphy's law has.

Variants

One variant (known as O'Toole's corollary of Finagle's law) favored among

hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

is a takeoff on the second law of thermodynamics (related to the augmentation of entropy): In the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' episode "

Amok Time "Amok Time" is the second season premiere episode of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, scored by Gerald Fried, and directed by Joseph Pevney, it first aired on Se ...

" (written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1967), Captain Kirk tells Spock, "As one of Finagle's laws puts it: 'Any home port the ship makes will be somebody else's, not mine.'" The term "Finagle's law" was popularized by

science fiction author This is a list of noted science-fiction authors (in alphabetical order): A *Dafydd ab Hugh (born 1960) *Alexander Abasheli (1884–1954) *Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) *Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) * Robert Abernathy (1924–1990) *Dan Abn ...

Larry Niven in several stories (for example, '' Protector'' allantine Books paperback edition, 4th printing, p. 23, depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners; this " Belter" culture professed a religion or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy. "Finagle's law" can also be the related belief "Inanimate objects are out to get us", also known as

Resistentialism Resistentialism is a jocular theory to describe "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects", where objects that cause problems (like lost keys or a runaway bouncy ball) are said to exhibit a high degree of malice toward humans. ...

. Similar to Finagle's law is the verbless phrase of the German novelist Friedrich Theodor Vischer: "''die Tücke des Objekts''" (the perfidy of inanimate objects). A related concept, the "Finagle factor", is an '' ad hoc'' multiplicative or additive term in an equation, which can only be justified by the fact that it gives more correct results. Also known as Finagle's variable constant, it is sometimes defined as the correct answer divided by your answer. One of the first record of "Finagle factor" is probably a December 1962 article in The Michigan Technic, credited to Campbell, but bylined "I Finaglin" The term is also used in a 1960 wildlife management article.

References

External links

{{Spoken Wikipedia, Finagle's_law.ogg, date=2019-10-25 Adages

Variants

See also

References

External links