jimras Posted February 9, 2006 Report Share Posted February 9, 2006 The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington mid-term chemistry exam. The professor considered one student’s answer so profound that he shared it with colleagues via the Internet — which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.The “Bonus Question†on the exam was: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 when it expands and heats 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 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 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. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their 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 in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately 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 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 in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it?If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa (a girlfriend of mine during my Freshman year) that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with youâ€, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic 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 therefore, extinct, leaving only Heaven - thereby proving the existence of a divine being… which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.â€â€”————————————-That student received the only “A.†Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 hehe, I like it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steamhead Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 me too, very creative! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robroy Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 copy, paste, e-mail Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Honda_Boy Posted February 11, 2006 Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 A FRICKIN + dude. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
d_leet Posted February 12, 2006 Report Share Posted February 12, 2006 I've heard this and seen this before, but it was the other way around, it has boyle's law the wrong way around too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Makai Posted February 13, 2006 Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 Good one! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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