Gauss's Law

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a pretty smart guy. That is why he got a law named after him. There are really only two ways to get a law named after you. First, do or state something first, as did Gauss, Ohm (who recently beat Gauss as we know), Fudd, or Godwin. Second have something bad happen to you, such as Murphy, or Megan.

So what do you need to do to get a law named after you? Good ol' Carl helps us here as well. See he also worked on what is called the Gaussian distribution. That combined with Google can give us that answer. A Google search for "laws named for people" yields almost 6 million hits; half of the first page (5 of 10) seem relevant, so lets say 3 million laws. Most of these will not be commonly used, like perhaps someone makes their own law. Like you could make a "Beanholio's Law" where some arbitrary assessments are made to determine "coolness." But that will never last the test of time. So, lets be generous and say there are 600,000 valid laws named for people; just to make the math easier. With 6 billion people on the earth that leaves 0.1% of the population with a law. However, most of the laws are named for dead people, so we should take them into account as well. There are a lot of dead people so really you need to be like 1 in a million to get a law named after you.

Back to the Gaussian distribution with the x-axis going from unlucky to first. Those who are greater than 6 sigma below the average have a very high chance of having something so unfortunate happen to them that they will get a law named after them. Those six sigma above the average will most likely do/say something really cool and get a law named after them.

So, here's to you Gauss, for being one lucky SOB. Wait, actually you were on the other end of the scale, good for you all the same.