A really bad joke in poor taste

The following is supposedly 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.

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 2 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."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"