oldrebel: blog 
oldrebel's blog
the thermodynamics of hell
Published Oct. 12, 2008
I surfed across this amazing piece of reasoning in answer to a question posed to a student on a University of Washington chemistry exam. The question posed was "Is Hell endothermic or exothermic" and support your answer. If only I could come up with something this witty.
"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, 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 in relation to combining Charles' and Boyle's Laws. For the temperature and the 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. Therese Banyan 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 that area, then (2) cannot be true, and so Hell is exothermic.
This student got the only A."
http://www.anzaas.org.au/documents/antenna/Antenna%20-%2005.pdf
(Disclaimer: Humor, not Theological)
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http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~mike/misc/hell.html
Still, a funny story.
GOLO member since September 19, 2008
October 13, 2008 8:49 a.m.
GOLO member since August 18, 2007
October 12, 2008 3:57 p.m.
GOLO member since July 7, 2007
October 12, 2008 3:36 p.m.
Certainly not your humility....
GOLO member since August 28, 2008
October 12, 2008 3:33 p.m.
GOLO member since July 7, 2007
October 12, 2008 3:28 p.m.
BUT...there is a premise that everyone goes to hell because at least one religion that the deceased doesn't follow sends them there. Yet, surely, the opposite is true - some religions send their followers to heaven. So which wins? This strikes me as quantum mechanical behavior. The deceased may neither be in Hell nor in Heaven. There is an intrinsice uncertainty (Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle). I suspect this is probably called Limbo (even though the Pope thoughtfully did away with it a couple of years ago).
GOLO member since October 8, 2008
October 12, 2008 3:18 p.m.
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