Hell: Exothermic or Endothermic?

Salad Man · Postby **Salad Man** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:42 am

Someone posted this on another forum. Hope y'all enjoy it. ~~~~~ The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it too. 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 off when it expands and heats up 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 that souls are moving into Hell and the rate 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, 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 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 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. 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. Teresa Banyan 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 sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze. " The student received the only "A" given.

norsenerd · Postby **norsenerd** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 3:50 am

That was great. I probalby would have put soemthing to deal with the fact that hell is inside earth and earth is exothermic therefore hell is exothermic. His logic is flawed at the end there. The statment "It will be a cold day in hell before I sleep with you." does not lead it to be that it is never a cold day in hell. It can be a clod day in hell eventuly without her sleepign with him. It's just that #1 cann't happen and then she sleeps with him.

Ibon · Postby **Ibon** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:27 am

Considering the entire thing was a joke, I don't think it really matters.

norsenerd · Postby **norsenerd** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:30 am

But it has to matter. Jokes like that just can't stop. That's bad if they do. You have to keep on and let it flow. I jsut relized that he didn't anwer the question at all. The question was is hell giving off heat or absorbing it. Heat my be generated isnide of hell or destroyed. Converted to other forms of energy. You have to consider what the temperature flux is through the surface of hell not the absolute temperature. Exothermic would mean that it is loosing energy. If it is exothermic forever then it woudl loose all of it's energy and thus freeze. Even more mistakes in the only A answer.

Zylo · Postby **Zylo** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:39 am

Well, Hell is considered to be inside the Earth; the underworld. The number of souls entering must be quite high, and no one ever leaves, so the mass of Hell is continually increasing; however, the volume of Hell cannot expand or else the Earth, which is believed to contain Hell, would surely burst. So how can the mass increase but the volume not? Hell must be getting COLDER by the second so that the masses contract and allow more mass to enter without increasing the volume. So if Hell itself is getting colder, it must be releasing its heat somewhere (volcanoes?), making it exothermic.

Zaaphod · Postby **Zaaphod** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 5:45 am

Endothermic, exothermic, both, neither, whatever. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> It was funny. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

Foxchild · Postby **Foxchild** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:12 am

that is one of the single greatest things i have ever read.... I'm gonna have to print that and spread it around. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> thats funny stuff!

simon · Postby **simon** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:26 am

Ask the Doom marine, he's been there.

Henohenomoheji · Postby **Henohenomoheji** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 12:37 pm

wait... you're not allowed to leave?

norsenerd · Postby **norsenerd** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 1:29 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Well, Hell is considered to be inside the Earth; the underworld. The number of souls entering must be quite high, and no one ever leaves, so the mass of Hell is continually increasing; however, the volume of Hell cannot expand or else the Earth, which is believed to contain Hell, would surely burst. So how can the mass increase but the volume not? Hell must be getting COLDER by the second so that the masses contract and allow more mass to enter without increasing the volume. So if Hell itself is getting colder, it must be releasing its heat somewhere (volcanoes?), making it exothermic. </td></tr></table>  But there is the uncertinty princiaple. After you reach a certian density the mass in hell has to be very energetic. Most of that energy would be thermal. Of course the mass would have to get very high. Aslo what if souls are masless? Why are they required to contain mass. Energy sure but not mass.

Muninn · Postby **Muninn** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 8:12 pm

This may or may not be from the same paper, interesting though. Heaven is hotter than hell apparently. The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed from available data. Our authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition seven times seven (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or fifty times in all. The light we receive from the Moon is one ten-thousandth of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that. With these data we can compute the temperature of Heaven. The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses fifty times as much heat as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the earth (~300K), gives H as 798K (525C). The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed, but it must be less than 444.6C, the temperature at which brimstone or sulphur changes from a liquid to a gas. Revelations 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, or 444.6C (Above this point it would be a vapor, not a lake.) We have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C. -"Applied Optics", vol. 11, A14, 1972

Supersmoke · Postby **Supersmoke** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 8:39 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (5hfifty @ Mar 1 2004, 11:26 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Ask the Doom marine, he's been there.  </td></tr></table>  Does that dude even have a name? Maybe he will when Doom III comes out. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /ph34r.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ph34r.gif' /> That paper remeinds me of soemthing from my 8th grade year. We had to write an essay on a test. The question to it was "Why does blah blah do this?" Somebody wrote "Because." as the answer and got full credit for it. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' />

Henohenomoheji · Postby **Henohenomoheji** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 10:00 pm

maybe it's like Uranus, the equator is perpindicular to the sun so it's hot and cold at the same time. also, there might be intellegent beings down there, so they might have some control over it. and how do we know we're not in hell already? Or heaven for that matter? no, never mind, we can't be in heaven, it's not possible <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' />

norsenerd · Postby **norsenerd** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 10:03 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed from available data. Our authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition seven times seven (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or fifty times in all. The light we receive from the Moon is one ten-thousandth of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that. With these data we can compute the temperature of Heaven. The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses fifty times as much heat as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the earth (~300K), gives H as 798K (525C). The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed, but it must be less than 444.6C, the temperature at which brimstone or sulphur changes from a liquid to a gas. Revelations 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, or 444.6C (Above this point it would be a vapor, not a lake.) We have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C. -"Applied Optics", vol. 11, A14, 1972 </td></tr></table>  But what if hevan is not a blackbody? If it isn't then some of the raditiosn that Heavan recieves will be imedatyl reflected away and the enegy that Heavan is actuly abosrbing would be less tehn if it were a blackbody. That would lower the temperatue. Thus it's harder to measure the temperature of Heavan then was stated. Also what if there are other means of heavan changing it's temperature. Energy can be recieved through new souls as well as emeted through angles. Also what if heavan produces some energy that is lost (such as light) or has a sourse of heat within it, converting other forms of enrgy into heat (lice a nuclear reactor are a fire place)?

Doctor Fred · Postby **Doctor Fred** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 10:08 pm

That was beautiful irony. The only A in the class. The perfect stupid answer to such a stupid quesiton.

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Hell: Exothermic or Endothermic?

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