Following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
chemistry midterm. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the
professor had to share it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of
course, why we now have the pleasure of reading it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (giving off heat) or endothermic
(absorbing heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas
cools when it expands and heats 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 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.

Most monotheistic religions state that if you are not a member of their
faith, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions
and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project
that most souls go to Hell....[except for Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, and
indigenous people's belief systems, most of whose souls recycle.....]

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 proportionately 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. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls enter
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 Teresa during Freshman year that,
"It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into
account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be
true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen
over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows
that it is not accepting any more souls and it is, therefore,
extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a Divine
being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."


The student reportedly got an A+ for the answer.