A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for
his
students.
It had one question: "Is hell exothermic (gives off heat)
or
endothermic?(absorbs heat) Support your answer with a
proof."
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using
Boyles Law or
some variant. One student, however, wrote the
following:
---------------------------------------------------------------
First, we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have
some mass.
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 into hell, it
will not
leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.
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.
With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the
number of
souls in hell to increase exponentially.
Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyles
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.
#1 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.
#2 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.
So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by
Therese Banyan
during Freshman year, "that it will be a cold night in hell
before I
sleep with you" and take into account the fact that I still
have not
succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then #2 cannot
be true,
and hell is exothermic.
The student got the only A.
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