Laws

Your editorial “Hubble’s Law” (May 7) should more correctly be titled “Elson’s Law,” which states “Anything that can go wrong, already has, you’re just not aware of it yet.” (Remember, the flaws were in the mirror when it was launched, but who knew?)

My law was conceived when I worked on a NASA contract over 20 years ago after watching our just-launched payload make a beeline toward the bottom of the Pacific Ocean as a result of a sun sensor being installed upside down (by someone else, honestly). This experience taught my associates and me that Murphy was an optimist.

Acceptance of Elson’s Law provides one with a degree of stoicism when the going gets tough and a reminder to heed the little known but very valuable “Muth’s Law,” “Measure twice and cut once.”

EDWARD E. ELSON

Anaheim