The Temperature of Hell????

[Latreia]

The Temperature of Hell

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.

 

[pantsman52]

I thought that the story ended with "The student was the only one to get an A on the assignment".

 

[one love]

First, you have to prove there to be a hell with some sort of set of calculations derived from what we know or think we know of hell: where it is, how long it has been there, and how large is it?

 

[RoboMastodon]

Urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/hell.asp

 

[Latreia]

Urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/hell.asp

The things I post on Christian Humor usually are from emails sent to me and I can't find a link. So thanks for this interesting and informative link. I also assume most will recognize this stuff as making the rounds and I never meant to imply that I wrote them.

 

[billwald]

Kid should have flunked. Boyle's Law only applies to (ideal) gasses. We believe in the resurrection of the body, though I don't know why it is important if there is no sex act possible in Heaven.

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

Kid should have flunked. Boyle's Law only applies to (ideal) gasses.

But non-ideal gasses behave as ideal except at low temperatures and high pressures. Now I am not familure with boyle's law, but at the point where Hell is filled with souls, (the only situation where a gas might not behave as ideal), i don't think it would matter that much anymore.

 

[whatiswatanabe]

Kid should have flunked. Boyle's Law only applies to (ideal) gasses. We believe in the resurrection of the body, though I don't know why it is important if there is no sex act possible in Heaven.

The muslim heaven is all about sex

Souls are gas. All the ancient words for spirit mean breath or wind.

 

[RoboMastodon]

The muslim heaven is all about sex

Souls are gas. All the ancient words for spirit mean breath or wind.

Do they have mass, then?

 

[Yamialpha]

I thought that the story ended with "The student was the only one to get an A on the assignment".

I'd heard the same story and saw the same ending.