Fw: The existence of Hell - a treatise

From my sister,

 

The following is an actual question given on a Washington State University chemistry mid-term. The answer by one of the students 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 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!"

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A".

been awhile

Wow, it has been so long again since I’'ve blogged

I was in Hong Kong again last week, spent Tuesday afternoon in town, first I had a small meeting with someone from a sourcing office, then I didn’t know what to do, if I should go to Lantau and see the Big Buddha again, (great vegetarian lunch), but then, since I had already gotten off the MTR in Admiralty, I decided to walk to the lower Peak Tram station and take the tram up, that was so cool! Naturally at the upper peak, they have a modern building with a great viewing platform, but inside are all kinds of fast food joints, cafes, and souvenir shops.

It was really neat, now that I can spend some hours at a time in HK, and have started learning to get around by myself, it is so much more interesting there. I bought an “Octopus” card last time I was there, really just a reloadable RFID or chip card, it is really practical. For those who don’t know anything about it, you load it up with a few HK-Dollars, and when entering or leaving certain public transport system, you just lay your wallet (or whatever you have it in) on a plate, and it shows how much is still loaded, and what the fare being taken off is. You can reload it at 7-11 (where you can pay for your groceries with it as well) or at the MTR stations. And as for example at the peak tram stations, there was usually a long line of tourists to pay for their tickets, and holders of the octopus card, just walk up to the next turnstile, lay down the card, and are immediately admitted.

It is strange, but I always get “homesick” for HK a few days after returning to Germany. I still don’t know how it would really be to live there, but the other day, I saw that they only have a maximum of 16% taxes on your pay, with reductions for dependents, there is also some sort of health care plan that takes another 5%, but I am not sure how that all works. But for example I pay around 28% on my wages, and that is LOW, other people, for example even my wife pas up to 45%. I still want to find out about employers tax obligations for their workers, but in Germany, the rule of thumb, is for every 1 EURO the worker is being paid, the company pays almost 1 EURO in taxes, so for a worker that earns say 2000 EURO, the company is paying almost 4000 EURO, and that is why so many companies are so pressed when it comes to hiring a new worker.

YO!