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Sidney was a 14-year-old boy with an interest in
the sciences. One summer day he started his own investigations.
With his 12-year-old sister Sophie in tow, he caught a large bull
frog in a local pond. Sidney started his experiment with the amphibian,
and told Sophie her job was to write down the results of the experiment.
Sidney drew a line in the sand, placed the frog on the line, and
prodded the frog with a small twig from the rear and shouted,
"Jump, frog!" The frog jumped, and Sidney measured the
distance. "12 feet...write that down, Sophie," he said.
Next, he brought the frog back to the starting point and removed
the frog's right front leg. Again he prodded the frog and shouted,
"Jump, frog!" The frog jumped 10 feet, and on instruction,
Sophie wrote it down.
Again the frog was brought back, the left front leg was removed,
and again "Jump, frog!" Sidney reported, "Six feet...write
it down."
The next time, Sidney removed the large right back leg. "Jump,
frog!" Then, he shouted "Jump, frog!" and prodded
the frog. "The frog jumped 8 inches...write it down, Sophie."
Finally, Sidney removed the frog's remaining back left leg, put
it down and prodded the frog with the twig shouting, "Jump,
frog! Jump, frog! JUMP FROG!! JUMP JUMP FROG!!!"
The frog didn't jump. Sophie looked at Sidney, and said, "So
what should I write down?"
Sidney thought a moment, then told Sophie to write, "When
you remove all the legs from a frog, it turns deaf."
The following is an actual question given on a University
of Washington chemistry mid-term:
"Is Hell exothermic [gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs
heat)? Support your answer with a 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 the temperature and 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 having sexual
relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure
that Hell is exothermic.
The student got the only A.
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