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List of eponymous laws

The list of eponymous laws provides links to articles on laws, adages, and other succinct observations or predictions named after a person. In some cases the person named has coined the law - such as Parkinson's law. In others, the work or publications of the indvidual have led to the law being so named - as is the case with Moore's law. There are also laws ascribed to individuals by others, such as Murphy's law; or given eponymous names despite the absence of the named person.

• Amdahl's law - Used to find out the maximum expected improvement to an overall system when only a part of it is improved. Named after Gene Amdahl (b.1922 -)

• Ampère's law - In physics, it relates the circulating magnetic field in a closed loop to the electric current passing through the loop. Discovered by André-Marie Ampère.

• Asimov's three laws of robotics - also called, more simply, the Three Rules of Robotics, a set of rules which the robots appearing in the fictional works of Isaac Asimov (b.1920 d.1992) must obay.
  • First law: A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  • Second law: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  • Third law: A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

• Boyle's law - In physics, one of the gas laws, relating the volume and pressure of an ideal gas held at a constant temperature. Discovered by and named after Robert Boyle (b.1627 d.1691)

• Finagle's law - Generalized version of Murphy's law, fully named Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives and usually rendered "anything that can go wrong, will". Not strictly eponymous, since there was no Finangle.

• Gauss's law - In physics, gives the relation between the electric flux flowing out a closed surface and the charge enclosed in the surface. It was formulated by Carl Friedrich Gauss.

• Godwin's law - An adage in Internet culture that states "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." Coined by Mike Godwin in 1990.

• Graham's law - In physics, another gas law, which states that the average kinetic energy of the molecules of two samples of different gases at the same temperature is identical. It is named for Thomas Graham (b.1805 d.1869), who formulated it.

• Hanlon's razor - A corollary of Finagle's law, normally taking the form "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.". As with Finangle, possibly not strictly eponymous.

• Littlewood's law - States that individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. Coined by Professor J E Littlewood, (b.1885 d.1977)

• Metcalfe's law - In communications and network theory, states that the value of a system grows as approximately the square of the number of users of the system. Framed by [[Robert Metcalfe] (b.1946 -) in the context of ethernet

• Moore's law - An empirical observation stating that the complexity of integrated circuits doubles every 18 months. Outlined in 1965 by Gordon Moore (b.1925 -), co-founder of Intel

• Murphy's law - Strictly "If it can happen, it will happen", most commonly formulated as "if anything can go wrong, it will". Ascribed to Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

• Newton's laws of motion - In physics, three scientific laws concerning the behaviour of moving bodies, which are fundamental to classical mechanics. Discovered and stated by Isaac Newton (b.1643 d.1727).
  • First law: A body remains at rest, or moves in a straight line (at a constant velocity), unless acted upon by a net outside force.
  • Second law: The acceleration of an object of constant mass is proportional to the force acting upon it.
  • Third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

• Occam's razor - States that explanations should never multiply causes without necessity. When two explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable. Named after William of Ockham (circa b.1285 d.1349)

• Ohm's law - In physics, states that the ratio of the potential difference (or voltage drop) between the ends of a conductor (and resistor) to the current flowing through it is a constant, provided the temperature doesn't change. Discovered and named after Georg Simon Ohm (b.1789 d1854).

• Parkinson's law - "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson (b.1909 d.1993)

• Pareto principle - States that for many phenomena 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes. Named after Italisn economist Vilfredo Pareto, but framed by management thinker Joseph M. Juran.

• Peter principle - "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence". Coined by Laurence J. Peter (b.1919 d.1990)

• Sturgeon's law - "Ninety percent of everything is crud." Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon (b.1918 d.1985)

• Zipf's law - in linguistics, the observation that the frequency of use of the nth-most-frequently-used word in any natural language is approximately inversely proportional to n, or, more simply, that a few words are used very often, but many or most are used rarely. Named after George Kingsley Zipf (b.1902 d.1950), whose statistical work research led to the observation.

See also

• List of eponyms