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The following is 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 two 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."

Quote (rawr_rawr @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 02:19pm)

Auto-fail when you quote the bible.

Quote (BovineDesi @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 12:01pm)

And you call me lazy. what a hypocrite, sorry you have 0 conclusive evidence that heaven is hotter than hell....much less that they even exist. "just let it slide" though, because thats how you go about doing science...

Quote (Dr_zoidberg71 @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 04:28pm)

it makes sense to quote from the bible when you're talking about something IN the bible, right?

of course, you could have much more logical training than I do.

Quote (kegman909650 @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 12:59pm)

LOOOL
Nice one, Louis.

Quote (BeanSoldier @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 07:23pm)

And women are evil too!

Quote (Kezza @ Sun, Dec 21 2008, 05:08am)

Heaven is hotter than hell!

It is possible to make an accurate computation of the temperature of Heaven using a physical law called Stephens Law? This follows from data available in the bible. Isiah 30:28 reads:
"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 (ie: 49 times) as much as earth does from the sun. This gives 50 times in all !

This radiation falling on heaven heats it to the point where the heat loss by re-radiation just equals the heat received by radiation. So from Stephens 4'th power law we have

Taking T (the absolute temperature of earth) as 300K, we obtain a temperature of 798K, or about 525 Celcius.

It is tempting to compare this unexpectedly warm temperature with that of Hell. Although we cannot be exact about the temperature of hell, we can conclude an upper limit. Revelations 21:8 reads :
" But the fearful and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."

The boiling point of brimstone (sulphur) is 444.6 degrees C, which means that the temperature of such an eternal lake must be less than 444.6 degrees C (otherwise if would evaporate).

Therefore, as 444.6 is much less than 525.0, we are forced to conclude, by Physical and Biblical data, that:
Heaven is hotter than Hell!

- http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/fun/heaven/