Engineers - Thermodynamics Exam Bonus Question

jssailem

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,828
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Knowing that many who monitor this site have some form of engineering background and may have actually experienced the subject matter. I felt it worthy to share this posted exam bonus question... and one students answer.

The extra credit question response by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it here.
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Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote about Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant of those two mutually exclusive heat flows.

But only one student gave the following profound answer:

First, we need to know how the Mass of Hell is transitioning over 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 cannot leave. Therefore, no souls are outbound. As for how many souls are inbound to Hell, let's first consider the multiple religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions believe the only way to Heaven is through strict adherence to a rigorous belief system, otherwise you go to Hell. Since the vast majority of followers will fall far short of full behavioral compliance, we can project that the vast majority of souls go to Hell. Also, with global birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to progressively increase exponentially, while remembering that 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 presents 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 Hell Boils Over.

#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 knock-out beautiful Mary 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 the #2 possibility above 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...Thereby Heaven is real which explains why, last night, Mary kept shouting “Oh My God.”

Student got an A+ !!
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rgranger

rgranger

.
Jan 19, 2010
12,553
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Speaking of thermodynamics.... I once restored a wreaked Coronado 23. It was a full on restoration with broken stringer and a lot of structural damage on the keel to hull joint.

When I was all done... I fitted her out with solar panels and two 55lb thrust trolling motors. No gas.

I named her The Delta Gee and painted this on her transom...

delta-G.JPG


Since my last name starts with a "G" and Delta sounds nautical, most of my dock mates thought it had something to do with my name.... only one old crotchety ex-engineer on the dock got the joke ......but it made me smile everytime I saw it. I might recycle that name some day if I ever get another boat with electric propulsion.
 
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Allan12210

Allan12210

.
Jan 22, 2008
1,661
Hunter 34 Alameda CA
rgranger said:
Speaking of thermodynamics.... I once restored a wreaked Coronado 23. It was a full on restoration with broken stringer and a lot of structural damage on the keel to hull joint.

When I was all done... I fitted her out with solar panels and two 55lb thrust trolling motors. No gas.

I named her The Delta Gee and painted this on her transom...

View attachment 198063

Since my last name starts with a "G" and Delta sounds nautical, most of my dock mates thought it had something to do with my name.... only one old crotchety ex-engineer on the dock got the joke ......but it made me smile everytime I saw it. I might recycle that name some day if I ever get another boat with electric propulsion.
Click to expand
rgranger said:
Speaking of thermodynamics.... I once restored a wreaked Coronado 23. It was a full on restoration with broken stringer and a lot of structural damage on the keel to hull joint.

When I was all done... I fitted her out with solar panels and two 55lb thrust trolling motors. No gas.

I named her The Delta Gee and painted this on her transom...

View attachment 198063

Since my last name starts with a "G" and Delta sounds nautical, most of my dock mates thought it had something to do with my name.... only one old crotchety ex-engineer on the dock got the joke ......but it made me smile everytime I saw it. I might recycle that name some day if I ever get another boat with electric propulsion.
Click to expand
Chemists learn Gibbs Free Energy is represented by delta G. Engineers learn it as delta F. I know both because I started out as a chemist then became an engineer. :)
 
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rgranger

rgranger

.
Jan 19, 2010
12,553
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Allan12210 said:
Chemists learn Gibbs Free Energy is represented by delta G. Engineers learn it as delta F. I know both because I started out as a chemist then became an engineer. :)
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Nice

Now I won't have to recycle the name.
 
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jssailem

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,828
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
@rgranger I understand "Delta - G".
What is with the crescent moon and star in the lower right corner of the image?
 
rgranger

rgranger

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Jan 19, 2010
12,553
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
jssailem said:
@rgranger I understand "Delta - G".
What is with the crescent moon and star in the lower right corner of the image?
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That was a long time ago... my best recolection is that I grabbed some clip art that looked cool and sort of nautical and pasted that image together in MS-paint as a template of what I wanted to paint on the transom. In the end I only painted the delta with a G inside. My art skills are limited.:poop:
 
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jssailem

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,828
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Looked like you reversed Turkey's national flag symbol...

1631292485363.png


Or crescent moon - North Star thing...
 
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Crusty Ol Salt

Crusty Ol Salt

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Aug 19, 2021
505
Hunter 280 White House Cove Marina
I do enjoy the question and the students answer was awesome.

That said

Who said hell was hot?

During a deep theological discussion with a good friend he put the idea out there that hell is the removal of the things you love most combined with the hopeless of never being able to reconciled with them.
 
R

Rick486

.
Oct 1, 2007
1,865
Boston Whaler Super Sport Pt. Judith
Crusty Ol Salt said:
I do enjoy the question and the students answer was awesome.

That said

Who said hell was hot?

During a deep theological discussion with a good friend he put the idea out there that hell is the removal of the things you love most combined with the hopeless of never being able to reconciled with them.
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Sounds like my teenage love life......
 
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