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(A True Story from a Yale professor)

A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduate students. Ithad one question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?Support your answer with a proof.

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle´s Law (gas cools offwhen 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 Hellis 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 a soul gets to Hell, itwill 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.

Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you willgo to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since most people do notbelong 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 toincrease exponentially. Second, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hellbecause Boyle´s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to staythe same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives twopossibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, thenthe temperature and pressure in Hell will increase 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..

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Miss Theresa Banyan during my freshman yearthat "It will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you" and take intoaccount the fact that I still have not succeeded with her, then #2 cannot be true, and soHell is exothermic.

The student got the only A.