The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington
chemistry midterm exam. Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat), or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof."
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. Then 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. 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 of 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.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 having sexual relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I conclude that Hell is exothermic.
This student got the only A.
Hey!
When I first got that email the guy HAD shagged her, :0.
What's going on? Is it one of those strange time things you guys were talking about?
Anyway, I remember when it was revealed to me by the paper that I had the same birthday as Pele! At that moment I knew that I was obviously a brilliant footballer. And I daresay I still am. I just keep it to myself, because I don't want to overshadow the great man. Also, we have the same birthday as Johnny Carson. Thus, I have just revealed to you all a brilliant topical segue.
Also, I recall the astonishment when it was revealed to me that Richard Hillman was, in fact, a serial killer!! I found out about the same time Gail did, and she looked a bit shocked herself. I'd had the advantage over her, because I'd seen him standing over Emily Bishop whilst having a firm grasp of a crowbar, but somehow it didn't sink in. Oh, I should have listened to Norris!
Also, I remember the delight when the "League of Gentlemen" was revealed to me too, 🙂. We don't have that sort of programme in New Zealand much. We're a local country, with local shows for local people. We'll have no trouble here.
Originally posted by XanthosNZAh, Friedmann's first assumption and model are explained in Hawking's book, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. Here's some stuff from page 29:
*pats arrakis's ego*
I suddenly realized that if one were to look 12 billion light years in any direction you would see the birth of the universe.
"Now at first sight, all this evidence that the universe looks the same whichever direction we look in might seem to suggest there is something special about our place in the universe. In particular, it might seem that if we observe all other galaxies to be moving away from us, then we must be at the center of the universe. This, as we have seen, was Friedmann's second assumption."
"...In Friedmann's model, all the galaxies are moving away from each other. The situation is rather like steadily blowing up a balloon which has a number of spots painted on it. As the balloon expands, the distance between any two spots increases, but there is no spot that can be said to be the center of the expansion. Moreover, the further apart the spots are, the faster they will be moving apart."
Friedmann's model predicted that the red shift of a galaxy should be directly proportional to it's distance from us, exactly as Hubble found.
The book continues to explain the theory that the universe may actually fold back in on itself. Therefore, if one were to be able to transport to the farthest distance one could see and make an observation at that point, everything would be appear to be moving away from you there, and you would 'appear' to be at the center of the universe! 😲
Originally posted by arrakisYeah it confuses me too.
Ah, Friedmann's first assumption and model are explained in Hawking's book, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. Here's some stuff from page 29:
"Now at first sight, all this evidence that the universe looks the same whichever direction we look in might seem to suggest there is something special about our place in the universe. In particular, it might seem that ...[text shortened]... be moving away from you there, and you would 'appear' to be at the center of the universe! 😲