How hot is it in Hell?

A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduatestudents. It had one question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) orendothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof.

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gascools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or somevariant.

One student, however, wrote the following:First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we needto know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they areleaving. I think that we can safely assume thatonce a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls areleaving. As for howmany souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions thatexist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are nota member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more thanone of these religions and since people do not belong to more than onereligion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell. Withbirth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hellto increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volumein Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature andpressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as soulsare added. Thisgives two possibilities.

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which soulsenter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase untilall Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase ofsouls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hellfreezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms.Therese Banyanduring my Freshman year, "That it will be a cold night in Hell before Isleep with you", and take into account the fact that I still have notsucceeded in having sexual relations with her, then 2.cannot be true, and soHell is exothermic.

The student got the only A.

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