A Question that many have pondered,
But were afraid to ask
A thermodynamics professor wrote up a take home exam for his graduate students. This test had only one question:
“Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with proof.”
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools off as it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant there of.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell as well as the rate at which they are leaving. I presume that it can safely be assumed that once a soul gets into Hell, it will not leave. Therefore no souls are leaving.
As for how many souls are entering Hell, we will have to 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 since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can safely project that all people and souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates being as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.
Now, let’s look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and the pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:
1.) If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and the 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? Well, if we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Annie Cartwright during my freshman year, “That it will be a cold day in Hell before I date you,” and take into account the fact that that I still have not succeeded in dating her, then #2 cannot be true, therefore Hell is exothermic.
The student received an “A”.
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