- A true story. A thermodynamics professor had
written a take home exam for his graduate students. It had one question:
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- "Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support
your answer with a proof."
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- Most of the students wrote proofs of their
beliefs using Boyle's Law or some variant. One student, however wrote the
following:
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- First, we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some
mass.
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- If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what
rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think
that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave.
Therefore, no souls are leaving.
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- As for souls entering hell, lets look at the different religions
that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you
are not a member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since, there are
more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than
one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell.
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- With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number
of souls in hell to increase exponentially.
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- Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle's Law
states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the
same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant.
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- So, if hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which
souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase
until all hell breaks loose.
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- Of course, if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase
of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell
freezes over.
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- However, if we examine the comment made to me by a certain student
that she would sleep with me; "when hell freezes over", and consider
the fact that I have yet to succeed then hell must be endothermic.
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- It was not revealed what grade the student
got.
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