(Jeremy) Bernstein’s First Law
Jeremy Bernstein
All tests measure something.
Bohr’s Law
Niels Bohr
The crazier the theory, the more likely it is to be correct.
Burton’s Rule
Robert Burton
No rule is so general which admits not some exception.
Chisholm’s Laws of Human Interaction
Francis P. Chisholm
1. If anything can go wrong, it will.
2. When things are going well, something will go wrong.
3. Purposes as understood by the purposer will be judged otherwise by others.
Clarke’s Laws
Arthur C. Clarke
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Finagle’s Law
Anon
If anything can go wrong with an experiment it will.
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Werner Heisenberg
The act of measurement affects whatever is being measured so that reality can never be known precisely.
Holmes’s First Law
Sherlock Holmes
Eliminate all other factors and the one which remains will be the truth.
Holmes’s Second Law
Sherlock Holmes
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.
Meyer’s Law
C. L. Sulzberger
If the facts don’t fit the theory, discard the facts.
