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The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
chemistry mid-term exam paper:

"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 thereof.

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 at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which
they are 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 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:

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, 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. Krissy Jones during my
Freshman year that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you"
and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having
sexual relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure that
Hell is exothermic.

This student got the only A.

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