A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his > > graduate 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 > > Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is > > compressed) or some variant. > > > > 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 and the rate > > they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul > > gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As > > for how many souls are entering Hell, let's 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 most 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 increases > > exponentially. Second, we look at the rate of change of the volume in > > Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and > > pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume in 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 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 Miss Therese > > Banyan during my freshman year that, "It will be a cold night in Hell > > before I go bowling with you," and take into account the fact that I > > still have not succeeded with her, then #2 cannot be true, and so Hell > > is exothermic. > > > > The student got the only "A".