The boys a genius

the following is an actual question given in a university of washington chemistry mid-term exam. the answer was so profound that the professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we have the pleasure of enjoying it aswell.

Bonus question: is hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyles Law (gas cools off when it expands or heats up when its 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 the and the rate they are leaving. i think we can assume that once a soul gets into hell it will not leave. therefore, no souls are leaving as for how many souls are entering hell, lets look at the diffrent religons that exist in the world today. some of these religons state that if you are not part of their religon you will go to hell. since there are more than one of these religons ans since people do not belong to more than one religon, we can project that all souls will go to hell. with birth and death rates as they are we can expect the number of souls in hell to grow exponentially. now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in hell because Boyles Law states that, in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the volume of hell has to expand as souls are added. this gives two possibilites

1: if hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then temperature and pressure will increase until hell brakes loose.

2: of course if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, than the temperature and pressure in hell will drop until hell freezes over.

so which is it? if we accept the postulate given to me by Ms Teresa Banyan during my freshman year... "that it will be cold day in hell brfore i sleep with you" and take into account that i have still not have succeded in having sexual relations with her then number 2 cannot be true, and thus i am sure hell is exothermic and will not freeze


the student recieved the only 'A' given.