The Thermodynamics of Hell

A true story. A thermodynamics professor had written a take home
exam for his graduate students. It had one question:

"Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with a proof."

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's
Law or some variant. One student, however wrote the following:

First, we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some
mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at
what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls
leaving? I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets
to hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for souls entering hell, lets 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 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 in volume in hell. Boyle's Law
states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to
stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to
stay constant.

So, 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.

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



It was not revealed what grade the student got.