From pennypacker@altech.com Mon Mar  3 11:15:25 1997
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 97 19:30:02 EST
From: Bruce Pennypacker <pennypacker@altech.com>
Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny
Subject: Is hell endothermic or exothermic?

No idea where this originated from.  All previous forward headers had been
removed before it got to me.  Sorry if it's copyrighted, but.....

>Physics Story
>
>A true story.  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.


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