Planning plays a vital role in the decision or task we take forward. Planning should be done carefully in order to achieve success. In case of failure, planning should also help in recovering back the loss. When we take up a project, a proper project management plan saves time and leads in a proper way. A well defined project plan will also have plan B outlined in case of failure of the project. This way of planning was said to be essential in Murphy’s law.
Murphy’s law states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. This law was put forth by Edward J Murphy, who served as a major in the US Air Force, he had a specialization in development engineering. Let’s see how this law was coined.
History Of Murphy’s Law
When Edward J Murphy was working in the air-force, he observed that many tasks that were planned would fail at times. Since Murphy was into testing experimental designs, he noticed that things did not go exactly as planned. Many tasks required to have an alternate plan when the planned task deviated. Hence murphy came up with the law that states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” It tells us to be ready with the probability that something will go wrong and have an alternate.
Let’s know some of the probability cases where Murphy’s law is applied. Murphy’s law has many applications in our day-to-day life.
- Assume you are buttering a piece of toast. Take two toasts, thinking about the probability that you might drop a toast. It’s better to have another option than regretting it.
- When standing in a queue for billing with multiple checkouts, we should expect the other lines to move faster.
- When a mobile or laptop has some technical problem, when taken to a repair center, expect it to work normally without any repair.
After understanding Murphy’s law, let us learn about Fermats Principle.
Principle of Least Time By Pierre de Fermat
Fermat’s Principle is also known as the principle of least time. It helps us to know the path travelled by the light ray and the quickest time taken by the light. It deals with ray optics and wave optics. Fermat’s principle was first stated by Pierre de Fermat, a French mathematician, in the year 1658. Fermat’s principle is helpful for studying optical devices. This principle was the aid to explain the ordinary law of refraction of light.
According to the principle, light travelling between two points takes the path such that the optical length between the points is equal.
Applications of Fermat’s principle:
- We know that light rays are rectilinear in a homogeneous medium. In any medium where the index of refraction is constant, light travels in a straight line.
- The angle of reflection of a surface is equal to the angle of incidence. This is the Law of Reflection.
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