Is Hell exothermic or endothermic

[tiggerii]

An old one but it still makes me smile

The following is an actual question given in the Liverpool University chemistry final exam paper. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues and the web.....

Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's law, that gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed, or variants of the same chemical theory.

One student, however, wrote the following:

Firstly, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing over time, so we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul goes into Hell, it will not leave. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that, if you are not a member of their particular religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that 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 of the volume of Hell. Because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay constant, the volume of Hell must expand proportionately as souls are added, this give s two possibilities to consider:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter it, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls entering, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which of these is the answer?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Sandra some time ago, that (and I quote) "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and taking into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true. Thus I am sure that Hell is endothermic and has already frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that, since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is in fact extinct, leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being. This must in turn explain why, last night in bed, Sandra kept on shouting out "Oh my God!"

This student received the only "A".

[VTRgirl]

I like it. Good one.

[sirch345]