A
thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for
his graduate students. It had one question:
"Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer
with a proof."
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using
Boyle's 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 to 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. 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.
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.
Of course, if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the
increase of souls in hell, than the temperature and pressure
will drop until hell freezes over.
It was not revealed what grade the student got.
