A Deeper Look at Science

A physics professor had written a take home exam for his graduatestudents. It had only one question:"Is Hell endothermic or exothermic? Support your answer with a proof."Most of the students wrote simple proofs using Boyle's Law or somevariant. One student, however, wrote the following:------First, if we postulate that souls do exist, then they must possess somemass. If so, then a mole of souls also possesses a certain mass. So, atwhat rate are souls moving into Hell and at what rate are souls leaving?I think we may safely assume that once a soul reaches Hell, it will notbe leaving. Therefore, no souls leave Hell.As for the souls entering Hell, we need to examine the religions of theworld. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member, youwill go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions andpeople generally do not belong to more than one religion, we can projectthat all people and, therefore, all souls, go to Hell.With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of soulsin Hell to increase at an exponential rate.We then need to examine the rate of change to the volume of Hell itself.Boyle's Law states that in order for the pressure and temperature toremain constant, the ratio of the mass of souls to the volume of Hellmust remain constant.Thus..[A] If Hell is expanding a slower rate than the rate of the mass of soulsaccumulating in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will increaseuntil all Hell finally breaks loose, making Hell exothermic.[B] Conversely, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increaseof the mass of the souls accumulating in Hell, then the temperature andpressure will drop until Hell eventually freezes over, making Hellendothermic.If we accept the postulate given to me by Theresa Banyan during myfreshman year that "it will be a cold day in hell before I ever sleepwith you", and taking into account the fact that I still have notsucceeded in establishing intimate relations with her, then [B] cannot betrue.Therefore, Hell is exothermic.-----The student got the only A.