An Australian physicist proposed to his long-time girlfriend using a physics paper. The paper, written by Brendan McMonigal for his girlfriend Christie Nelan, is titled "Two-body interactions: a longitudinal study" and is dated March 2012, although it was posted to the website Reddit on Sunday Feb. 24.
"The study began on the 23rd of March, 05," the paper states, "outside a SciSoc BBQ at the Eastern Avenue building, when the subject spontaneously appeared in a red coat and grey 'Paddington bear' hat and was similarly spontaneously introduced by a local social node."
The couple met as first-year students at the University of Sydney and got to know each other quickly through taking the same science classes. The paper tracks their seven-year relationship and includes a "happiness graph" that goes upward from 2005 to 2012.
Under the "Conclusions" section, the paper states: "The summary of the findings of the study are presented in Figure 1, and show that the projected happiness is upward with high confidence. Taking these results into account, the author proposes to Christie Nelan the indefinite continuation of the study. The subject's response to this proposal should be indicated below."
Beneath the section are two boxes marked "yes" and "no." The image of the paper shows that the "yes" box is checked.
"I hesitated because it was only one page, which is very short for your average physics paper, and then I realized Brendan was giving me a very odd look," Nelan says. "So I looked at the paper more carefully and realized Brendan was the author."
A digital copy of the paper has gotten more than 1.7 million views. One person commented on Reddit, "I'm a guy and this is still the most adorable thing ever." Another said, "That was impressively geeky and completely appreciable."
The couple plans to get married in March. Nothing geeky, though. Just something romantic; maybe by a waterfall.
