Oh... so funny

[pblack]

Taken from another forum:

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.

[Jack the Ripper]

That's a very nice demonstration . I also remember something similar to this: in an exam in University one of the future great physicists (Niels Bohr perhaps) gave something like 10 solutions to the problem of 'how to measure the height of a building with a barometer?' , all different from the one expected. Any idea about that one?

[pblack]

That's a very nice demonstration . I also remember something similar to this: in an exam in University one of the future great physicists (Niels Bohr perhaps) gave something like 10 solutions to the problem of 'how to measure the height of a building with a barometer?' , all different from the one expected. Any idea about that one?

I guess I could come up with a solution. But not on a Sunday... lol.

[grobblewobble]

I could think of three ways. First the way you would expect: measure air pressure difference between top and bottom of the building. Second: walk 100 meter from the building, stretch your arm with the barometer in your hand and mark the point on the barometer where your eye sees the top of the building. With some trigonometry you can then calculate the height of the building. Third: drop the barometer from the building and measure how long it takes to reach the ground.

[phauli]

Oh man this was so funny If i were this guys teacher he definitely would have gotten A+ on the entire course

[boris_pankov@inbox.ru]

The best way is to give the barometer to the tower keeper in exchange for knowledge of its height ))

[Jack the Ripper]

Yeah, I've since found the Bohr-thing and read it

[Grey]

Wow, have you guys not seen these made up things everywhere before? They're interesting stories, but you're not meant to believe them :P

[Jack the Ripper]

Wow, have you guys not seen these made up things everywhere before? They're interesting stories, but you're not meant to believe them :P

They're just urban myths and legends Grey, yes, I think most people here know that. It's just a method of venting frustration about teachers by attributing some anonymous/famous person with the cheek to spite their teachers and still get away with it.

[FantomFang]

My mom actually had a teacher like this in college. Did it to her roomate's class, final test was "Why?" (It was a philosophy class). Most people left really long and painful answers, and got lesser grades (a few B's, lots of C's). One of the students' answer was simply "Why not?" and got the only A in the class, for being the only one who realized the point of the test was to see who would sit there and try and bullshit their way to a fancy looking paper when a simple short sentence could accomplish the same thing in just as effective of a manner, considering that there was literally nothing to work off of.