An actual answer submitted by a college math student.

I saw this in a list of other funny math pics that I thought were hilarious so I'll add them on

This message comes from a graduate of the Univerisity of Oklahoma Chemical Engineering Department via an acquaintance of mine who sends out a "Daily Silly" to a large group of people. It cites one of Dr.Schlambaugh's final test questions for his final exam for 1997. [Note: Dr. Schlambaugh is known for asking questions on his finals like:"Why do airplanes fly?"] This was an "actual question" given on a University of Washington chemistry midterm.

Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with 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. 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 because Boyle's Law states that in order for 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.snopes.com/col...m/hell.asp

J. Thanks I was wondering.

However, I did have a professor in History Survey course that told the students to read all the directions first. The last page at the bottom had directions that read. Sign your name on the front page and turn the test in and you will receive an A. I was wondering when two people out of 100 got up and turned in their test. Unfortunately I was not one of them.

I once had a political science professor who stated the first day that he was a republican. He went on to say that he was always right and that he would not tolerate any discontent. He said that if you did not like those terms you could get the eff out of his class. Many people got up and left. I stayed and learned more about ICBM's than anyone would want to know.

My best guess is that somewhere out there, there's a Snopes article covering the mythological "Republican" political science professor.

Fill in the next letter:

OTTFFSSEN_

T

nice work - that didn't take long!

OTTFFSSEN_

This was the first letter of each number up to ten. O=One, T=Two, T=Three, F=Four etc. So the answer is "T" for Ten.

Q: What does the zero say to the the eight?
A: Nice belt!

hee hee hee! I am so funny today