According to urban legend, the following was an actual question on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with his colleagues via the Internet, which is, of course, why we have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (formed by the evolution of heat) or endothermic (formed by the absorbtion heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs on their beliefs by applying some variant of Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed). One creative 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 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 first 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 the 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 us 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 will drop until Hell freezes over.

So, which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Theresa 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 still have not succeeded in having an affair with her, then #2 above cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze over."

The student received the only "A" in the class.

My thanks to my colleague, Jeff Wodrich, for bringing this little gem to my attention.