The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well. Bonus Question: 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 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 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 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 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."
ROFL!!! First I started laughing, then I started falling out of my chair, then I had to sign in 3 times, that is a very wonderful story, Buck!! The kid will go far.......somewhere!? You certainly woke me up!! Marja
WHAT that's the ideal gas equation. Boyle's law was (roughly speaking) "For a fixed quantity of an ideal gas maintained at a constant temperature, pressure is inversely proportional to volume" or P1V1 = P2V2 P1 is pressure at first condition of temperature..... and so on.
@Galcoolest http://fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/150/webstories/thermo_hell.htm http://www.boardofwisdom.com/mailquote.asp?msgid=3972 http://www.takeourword.com/TOW177/page5.html
Update : http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/hell.asp Don't agree with the last para though. I think there was some *research* that *conclusively* proved that the human soul *weighs* 21 grams. Update 2 : http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp oops!
I beg to differ here.....doesn't your 'soul weight' depend on the size of your shoes??!!....... Cochise,
Damn, damn, damn! And I passed that on to folks! All of 13's refs had a different outcome- "I didn't darn sleep with her"- oh my... how frustrating! And it was a Physics exam or another- yikes! This brings up one of my favorite topics/fields of inquiry ---- "the Urban Myth". I'll gather some info on it to legitimize that it is in fact a recognized sociological sub-discipline now, in large part because of Jan Brunveld at the University of Utah who wrote the first definitive studies and then popular books on the phenomena of "stretched tales". He tracked old stories we all hear to their origins. Like the alligators in the NY sewers, the poodle in the microwave, the "rocket man, etc.". Interestingly enough, on Fox or Discovery or somewhere the other night, I caught a new show that tests urban myths- and it's cool as heck! Most myths are plainly ridiculous- but I leave with this one "old tale" that has been retold for years and with lots of variations that goes like this: A guy goes to look at a car advertised in the paper for a very good price, considering the model and year. He meets with the older widowed lady selling it, and after giving it the once over, decides this is a real steal and gives her cash for it. He notices on the way home, however, that there is a really nasty smell to the car, a lingering, rancid reek. So he takes it the next day to detailers who vacuum and deodorize it thoroughly, but still after that the smell is pervasive. So he takes it to another detailer and gets it done over again- big time. ANd yet after he pulls away, the damn odor is STILL there! Finally the guy is so upset and so unable to tolerate this stink in the car, he takes it back to the old lady who sold it. He asks her if she knew this car had a terrible stench that couldn't be gotten rid of. SHe breaks down, apparently, and says it wasn't her fault, it wasn't anybody's fault... seems her former husband had been up in the woods on his way to go hunting and had suffered a heart attack at the wheel of this car, and lay dead in the car for 2 weeks before he was found. The smell was the smell of his rotting flesh... Well- myth? NOPE. That could be and would be TRUE STUFF! They had all sorts of experts on this, the folks who "rehab" cars after gorey accidents and whatnot, and they all said if a person rots in a car for 2 weeks there is NO getting rid of that smell. So there you have it! Urban myth no more! I'll post about this urban myth business some other time with links... but couldn't resist that tidbit I learned on the TV show!
P1V1 = P2V2 lacks T (temperature). The story is centered around change in volume, temperature, and pressure, correct? B's Law said something like with FIXED mass and FIXED temperature, the product of pressure and volume is a constant. But the story assumes an increase in mass. Possibilities #1 and #2 dealt with a change in temperature, a direct violation of B's Law. Perhaps this was Teresa's first romantic encounter?
Now 13- Pleeeez- this tale of the exam has entered the realm of urban myth already- the variations you alone evidenced document that. The rotting guy has EVERYTHING to do with the original Boyle's Law bit- hello? (2nd Law of Thermodynamics anyway? ) "There is NO hell like having to retrieve days' old bodies, trust me"-- Anonymous Kansas City cop.
If the shoe fits... We are more valuable than any of the younger generations: We have silver in our hair. We have gold in our teeth. We have stones in our kidneys. We have lead in our feet. and ...... We are loaded with natural gas. Software is like Gas - It expands to the size of the container http://www.vb-helper.com/essay7.htm
Primrose.......your priceless....it's soooo comforting to know that there are people out there who understand the 'Off the Wall' demented ramblings of the Youthfully Challenged like me.........Will you still PM me when I lose it completely...or when my memory goes.....or when my memeory gowe...r whn my memrro...go............Take care of all my shoes....God will want all the bits of leather off the bottom of 'em............ Cochise,
