Segal's law

Segal's law is an adage that states:

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.^[1]

At surface level, the adage emphasizes the consistency that arises when information comes from a single source and points out the potential pitfalls of having too much conflicting information. However, the underlying message is to question the apparent certainty of anyone who only has one source of information. The man with one watch has no way to identify error or uncertainty.

History

The saying was coined by the San Diego Union on September 20, 1930: "Confusion.—Retail jewelers assert that every man should carry two watches. But a man with one watch knows what time it is, and a man with two watches could never be sure." Later this was — mistakenly — attributed to Lee Segall of KIXL, then to be misquoted again by Arthur Bloch as "Segal's Law".^[2]

See also

• List of chronometers on HMS Beagle
• The four-faced liar
• Triple modular redundancy in chronometers
• wikt:a stopped clock is right twice a day

References

1. Bloch, Arthur (2003). Murphy's Law. New York: Perigee. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-399-52930-6. OCLC 52895461.
2. "Barry Popik".

External links

• Farmer, Dan; Wietse Venema (2006). "2". Forensic Discovery. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-63497-6.