Parkinson's law Parkinson's law Parkinson's law is the adage that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". It is sometimes applied to the growth of bureaucracy in an organization. This law is likely derived from ideal gas law, whereby a gas expands to fit the volume allotted. Articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as part of the first sentence of an essay published in "The Economist" in 1955 and since republished online, it was reprinted with other essays in the book "Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress" (London, John Murray, 1958). He derived the dictum from his extensive
Virtual work statics. Working with Leibnizian concepts, Johann Bernoulli systematized the virtual work principle and made explicit the concept of infinitesimal displacement. He was able to solve problems for both rigid bodies as well as fluids. Bernoulli's version of virtual work law appeared in his letter to Pierre Varignon in 1715, which was later published in Varignon's second volume of "Nouvelle mécanique ou Statique" in 1725. This formulation of the principle is today known as the principle of virtual velocities and is commonly considered as the prototype of the contemporary virtual work principles. In 1743 D'Alembert published his "Traité de Dynamique" where