The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid term exam. The answer was so «profound» that the Professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we now have thepleasure of enjoying it as well.Bonus
Question:Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
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 therate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once asoulgets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.
As for how many souls are entering Hell, lets look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Some of these religions state that if you arenot a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.
Since there are 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 numberof souls in Hell to increase exponentially.
Now, 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 ofHell has to expand as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at whichsouls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell willincrease 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.
Fr. Frank Garcia, Tangara, Australia
