The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term: "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 Boyles 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 over time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think 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 number of 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 their 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 can look at the rate of change of the volume of Hell because Boyles 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 2 possibilities: 1) If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter, then the temperature and pressure will increase until all Hell breaks loose, or 2) If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the 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. Theresa 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 have still not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then 2) cannot be true and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic. The student got an A.