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2/10/2003 01:15:00 AM | Timothy Hell and Logic: a diversion John Ellis posted this: Bonus Question on a chemistry mid-term at the University of Washington: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs 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 of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, 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 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 proportionately as souls are added. This leaves 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 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 Teresa during my Freshman year that, "...it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having an affair with her, then #2 above cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze over." After reading this, I have a problem with this answer. First, there must have been people that have said "I will sleep with you when hell freezes over' to someone who they later did sleep with. Unless we have reason to take Teresa's word over theres this does nothing to resolve the choice between the two possibilities at the end of the essay. Second, even if we accept the postulate about Teresa's word being determinate, we cannot conclude that hell is not expanding. Teresa could sleep with the author or the exam in the future: we do not know that. Hell could freeze over tomorrow and teresa could sleep with him tomorrow. If that is the case, then today hell would be expanding, on its way to freezing over! Or hell could be expanding at such a rate that by the time it freezes over, noth Teresa and the exam's author will be dead. So the student cannot be sure that hell will not freeze over. perma link |
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