Sod's law

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See also: Murphy's Law and Finagle's law

Sod's Law is the name for the old and famous axiom"Anything that can go wrong, will".^[1] "Toast will always land butter side down" is often given as an example of Sod's Law in action. The phrase is seemingly derived, at least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod"; a term used to describe someone who has had some bad unlucky experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person.

The term is still commonly used in Britain, though in North America the newer eponymous "Murphy's Law" has become more popular.^[2] This change may be partially due to the use of the word "sod", which could be taken to mean a "sodomite". However the word has passed into very common colloquial usage and tends to now be taken to only mean an arbitrary person.

"Sod’s Law" is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"). For example, concepts such as "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" and "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual’s actions" are sometimes given as examples of "Sod's Law" in action. This would broaden "Sod's law" to a general sense of being "mocked by fate". In these aspects it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981 is more upbeat — it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone be unturned — not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluencable fate.

Some examples of "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" include:

Ludwig van Beethoven's loss of hearing - loss of hearing is bad fortune for anyone, but it is Sod’s Law that it would happen to a famous composer.
Adolph Coors III, who was allergic to beer, was the heir to the Coors beer empire – being allergic to beer is bad fortune for many, but it is Sod’s Law that someone allergic to beer would inherit a beer empire (and, due to a botched kidnapping attempt, die because of the empire's wealth, thus being killed by beer, but only indirectly).

Some examples of "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual’s actions" include:

If you take your raincoat and umbrella with you, it will be sunny – any attempt you make to control your destiny (in this case how wet you get) will be thwarted by fate.
You move to another city, only to meet and fall in love with someone from your hometown.

In French, Sod's law is rendered by the phrase: “c’est bien le Diable que…” (literally: “it really is Devil that…”)

[edit] In context

Sod's Law is most often used in context at times when the worst or most annoying thing that could happen at any one time does happen. For example if you had planned for a picnic on the hottest day of the year, and then it rained, you might attribute that to "Sod's Law".

Sod's law is also an example of innumeracy, where people ignorant of the laws of probability assume relations between things that in fact happen by chance.

[edit] Siddons' Law

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A corollary of Sod's Law is Siddons' Law which states that in any bookshop on a particular day, the number of people buying books is inversely proportional to the number of people selling books. This is born out in practice and bookdealers will verify that on the coldest, wettest miserable day which has kept customers at bay, it will not have affected the hordes of people anxious to offload their spare books.