University chemistry question, " Hell, exothermic or endothermic?"
A question from a University of Washington mid term chemistry exam: "Is Hell exothermic [ gives off heat], or endothermic? [ absorbs heat] ".
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyles Law [ gas cools off when it expands, & heats up when 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 entering and leaving . I think 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 their are more than one of these religions, and since it can be assumed people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project all souls will go to hell.
With birth & death rates as they are , we can expect the no. of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyles law states that in order for the temp. & 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 temp. & pressure in Hell will clearly 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 temp. & pressures will drop until Hell freezes over.
So, which is it ? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Therese Banyan during my 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 thus I am sure Hell is exothermic. ' He got the only A. Bob