Skip to main content

Critical Error 9 Not Accounting for Murphy’s Law

  • 14k Accesses

Abstract

The legend goes that a new physics professor at a Midwestern school wanted to impress the undergraduates with his teaching. 2 In his fi rst semester, he requested to teach one of the large sections of freshman physics. Held in a huge lecture hall, each class period consisted of a lecture about a major topic and then a demonstration of a principle associated with that topic. For the class period that discussed motion in a plane, the new professor refused to use the six-foot air table that everyone else used. Instead, he had the technicians build him something twice as large. Likewise, for the class period on Newton’s laws, he refused to use the tabletop spring balance that everyone else chose; he had the technicians build him something much larger.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Alley, M. (2013). Critical Error 9 Not Accounting for Murphy’s Law. In: The Craft of Scientific Presentations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8279-7_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8279-7_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-8278-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-8279-7

  • eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics