THE BAD LUCK THEORY
You invite your friends over to watch an NBA basketball playoff game on TV. There are plenty of sodas in the refrigerator, the popcorn is popping, and you are all set to watch the big game. You turn on the TV set, and all you get are fuzzy images on the screen. Is this plain bad luck or is it Murphy's Law at work? Murphy's Law states: If anything can go wrong, it will.
Similar situations occur all the time. When you're in a hurry to open the door and you try several keys on the key ring , the last remaining key is usually the one that works. When you get in a line at the supermarket, you find you've chosen the slowest one, and it just doesn't move. Is this bad luck or coincidence? According to British physicist Robert Mathews, it's neither one nor the other. He explains that our Selective memories tend to remember the bad episodes more readily than the things that usually work out. Also, the law of probability is more against us than in our favor in many situations. For example, in the supermarket with five cashiers, the chances of getting the fastest lane are 20 percent, and 80 percent for a slower lane.
Mathews became a popular scientist when he proved that
a piece of toast doesn't necessarily fall on the floor on the
buttered side. BBC Television gathered 300 people to throw
pieces of buttered toast up in the air and observe on which side
they fell. Half fell on the buttered side, and half didn't.