i hate trig, part 2

[Crazed Rabbit]

[B]The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid-term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, and the sharing obviously hasn't ceased...
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 off 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 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 us 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 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 as souls are added.

Well that simply confirms my poor opinion of UW engineering*. Or whoever wrote that. Boyle's law is for situations with constant temperatures (and constant mass). A much more appropriate equation would be the Ideal Gas Law, ( PV = nRT ) which provides for changing temperature and mass.

Ugh, trig... I'll never be able to get SOH CAH TOA out of my head for as long as I live.

Don't worry; I've forgotten what you're talking about.

CR
* I am aware this is an anecdote.
EDIT: Indeed, snopes says it dates to a well regarded scientist circa 1920.