steps. Hick's law, in psychology, describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a function of the number of possible choices. Hickam's dictum, in medicine, is commonly stated as "Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please" and is a counterargument to the use of Occam's razor. Hitchens's razor is an epistemological principle maintaining that the burden of evidence in a debate rests on the claim maker, and that the opponent can dismiss the claim if this burden is not met: "That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." Hofstadter's law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law" (Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach, 1979). Hooke's law: The tension on a spring or other elastic object is proportional to the displacement from the equilibrium. Frequently cited in Latin as "Ut tensio sic vis." Named after Robert Hooke (1635–1703). Hotelling's law in economics: Under some conditions, it is rational for competitors to make their products as nearly identical as possible. Hubble's law: Galaxies recede from an observer at a rate proportional to their distance to that observer. Formulated by Edwin Hubble in 1929. Hume's law, in meta-ethics: normative statements cannot be deduced exclusively from descriptive statements. Hume-Rothery rules, named after William Hume-Rothery, are a set of basic rules that describe the conditions under which an element could dissolve in a metal, forming a solid solution. Humphrey's law: conscious attention to a task normally performed automatically can impair its performance. Described by psychologist George Humphrey in 1923. Hund's rules are three rules in atomic physics used to determine the term symbol that corresponds to the ground state of a multi-electron atom. Named after Friedrich Hund. Hutber's law: "Improvement means deterioration." Coined by financial journalist Patrick Hutber. Hyrum's Law: No matter what the documentation of some computer software's API, other programs will come to rely on the actual behaviour. Isaac Bonewits's laws of magic are synthesized from a multitude of belief systems from around the world, collected in order to explain and categorize magical beliefs within a cohesive framework. Jevons paradox: Increasing the efficiency with which a resource is used increases the usage of that resource. William Stanley Jevons Joule's laws are heat laws related to electricity and to gasses, named for James Prescott Joule. Joy's law in management: the principle that "no matter