Looking for Other Examples Like Chesterton’s Fence, Overton Window ...

September 7, 2022 7:15 AM

... Ocam’s Razor, Russell's Teapot. I’m looking for other principles, models, ideas, etc. that follow this format: Name-Tangible Object.
posted by probablysteve to Religion & Philosophy (38 answers total)

Wikipedia has a "List of eponymous laws", including "laws, principles, adages, and other succinct observations or predictions named after a person". There's also the List of scientific laws named after people and the more overarching List of eponyms.
posted by jedicus at 7:19 AM on September 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

Hanlon's Razor
Mendoza Line
Heaviside Layer
posted by jquinby at 7:19 AM on September 7, 2022

Gordian Knot.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:20 AM on September 7, 2022

Morton's Toe
posted by nkknkk at 7:26 AM on September 7, 2022

Adam's Apple!
Heimlich Maneuver
Halley's Comet
posted by nkknkk at 7:29 AM on September 7, 2022

Schrödinger's cat
posted by MythMaker at 7:32 AM on September 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

Murphy's Law
posted by XtineHutch at 7:49 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Roko's basilisk
Pascal's wager
posted by akk2014 at 7:53 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Maxwell’s demon
posted by caek at 7:55 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Rubik's Cube.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:58 AM on September 7, 2022

Sturgeon's law
Morton's fork
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:58 AM on September 7, 2022

Muller's Ratchet

Sieve of Eratosthenes

Wittgenstein's Ladder

inadvertent reference to a tangible object: Cartesian Plane
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:16 AM on September 7, 2022

With the caveat that some of them aren't really objects in the regular sense:

Taking the List of scientific laws named after people and removing theorems, etc

Ariadne's thread
Dirac comb
Fermi hole
Fermionic field
Fermi level
Occam's razor
Riemannian manifold
Riemann sphere
Von Neumann universe
Von Neumann neighborhood

Ditto for List of eponymous laws:

Chekhov's gun
Chesterton's fence
Hanlon's razor
Hitchens's razor
Muller's ratchet
Newton's flaming laser sword
Occam's razor
Russell's teapot
posted by zamboni at 8:20 AM on September 7, 2022

Disease names often work like this (Burkitt lymphoma, Parkinson disease). You may be interested to know that using an apostrophe for these names is controversial, as an apostrophe suggests ownership by someone who did not have the disease but described it. The National Down Syndrome Society specifically objects to the use of the term "Down's syndrome."
posted by FencingGal at 8:22 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Martha's Vineyard?
posted by box at 8:31 AM on September 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

Zeno's paradox
posted by FencingGal at 8:39 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Amdahl's Law
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:41 AM on September 7, 2022

Victoria's Secret and Mel's Drive-In. "Signage and menus on the original Mel's Diners did not have a possessive apostrophe in the name, as would be expected"
posted by Rash at 9:04 AM on September 7, 2022

Also, Jacob's Ladder, from a dream in Genesis (note that if you have a spare neon sign transformer you can easily make the cool electrical arc with the same name, as seen in many a mad scientist's laboratory).
posted by Rash at 9:12 AM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

And speaking of electricity, Ohm's Law
posted by Rash at 9:16 AM on September 7, 2022

In fact you'll probably see a lot of responses like <Name>'s Law but a little-known one I get validation for almost daily is Josephson's Law ("New is worse") as stated by NYC radio personality Larry Josephson (who passed away recently). But I guess these don't count since they're not tangible objects.
posted by Rash at 9:22 AM on September 7, 2022

Response by poster: Wow, so many great answers.

But I guess these don't count since they're not tangible objects.

Correct. I'm mainly interested in those referencing a tangible object.
posted by probablysteve at 9:28 AM on September 7, 2022

Nietzsche's Hammer or his Tuning-fork
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:22 AM on September 7, 2022

Ingres' Violin
Napier's Bones
Vick's VapoRub
Mom's Spaghetti
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 11:52 AM on September 7, 2022

Hobson's Choice
posted by miles per flower at 12:08 PM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Buridan's Ass
posted by bricoleur at 12:33 PM on September 7, 2022

Mobius band
posted by slimeline at 12:56 PM on September 7, 2022

Newton's Cradle
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:36 PM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Egg of Columbus
posted by snusmumrik at 1:39 PM on September 7, 2022

Hernando's Hideaway
Max's Kansas City
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Ruth's Chris
posted by box at 1:41 PM on September 7, 2022

How can we have gotten this far without a mention of Achilles' heel?
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:49 PM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mason-Dixon Line.
posted by pompomtom at 5:29 PM on September 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Planck length?
posted by Inkoate at 5:40 PM on September 7, 2022

Zeno's Arrow
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:03 PM on September 7, 2022

Peter Principle
posted by BoscosMom at 8:02 PM on September 7, 2022

Alice's Restaurant; Rosemary's Baby; and at Mental Floss, Nine People Who Have Been Called America's Sweetheart (a list which somehow omits Doris Day).
posted by Rash at 2:12 AM on September 8, 2022

Klein Bottle.

I get the idea that you are mostly interested in tangible items used as metaphors. The Klein bottle sort of an edge case. It is used as an educational example. A true KB cannot exist in our 3-D world. Some physical items sold with that name illustrate some of the properties.

There is a similar item in the form of a pouch in some system of mythology, but I didn't find it in a brief search.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:58 AM on September 8, 2022

Kuribo's Shoe
posted by box at 5:30 AM on September 8, 2022