been emailed this

The Physics Of Hell

This is an actual question on a University of Washington physics
mid-term exam:

"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 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 the rate
they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul goes
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. 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 since 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 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 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) 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 Ms
Therese Banyan during my Freshman year, 'That it will be a cold day in Hell
before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I still have
not
succeeded in that area, then (2) cannot be true, and so Hell is exothermic."

The student got the only A.