hello my name is throckmorton...

lately a few folks have asked why this little blog is dubbed "throckmorton". as with most (if not all) things, there is a story.

in college, my friends were liberal arts folks -- mostly english or fine arts or PLS (notre dame's great books program -- the PLS stood for "program of liberal studies" or "probably law school"). however, every rule has an exception, and my exceptions were my friends amy and adrienne (also my three-times-a-roommate) who were both math majors.

amy and adrienne had to take a physics class as part of their required courses. the textbook that they used was full of story problems about the mysterious "your cousin throckmorton", as in:

Your cousin Throckmorton is playing with the clothesline. He unties one end, holds it taut, wiggles the end up and down sinusoidally with frequency 2.00Hz and amplitude 0.075m. The speed of the wave is v=12.0m/s. At time t=0 the end has zero displacement and is moving in the +y-direction. Assume that no wave bounces back from the far end to muddle the pattern. Write a function that describes the displacement of the wave.

or,

While aboard your yacht, your cousin Throckmorton cuts a rectangular piece (dimensions 5.0×4.0× 3.0cm3) out of a life preserver and throws it into the ocean. The piece has a mass of 42 g. As it floats in the ocean, what percentage of its volume is above the surface?

(note: while my grammar and spelling technique may be unstoppable, my math and physics technique is embarrassingly subpar. please do not expect me to be able to answer these problems.)

so there we have your cousin throckmorton. our dear friend throcky has lightened the mood for many a student and has put a friendly face on many a problem. but who is this throckmorton, really? is he friend or foe? blonde or brunette? republican or democrat? vegan or carnivore?

whomever he is, i named this blog after him. his name doesn't really mean anything. i suppose when i was searching for a moniker for these collective posts, i wanted something silly and light and unrelated to the subject matter, which at the time was dark and troubled and clinical.

throckmorton: "nice to meet you."

one more thing, an oft-repeated quote from this same physics textbook goes something like this:

"the workless refrigerator is a mythical beast, like the unicorn or the free lunch."

almost makes me wish i had taken physics in college.
almost.