Thursday, 27 February 2025

How Big is Hell?


From my very early days on the internet, I recall a debate where someone told me, no, Hell can't be in the centre of the Earth.

The centre is solid Iron and Nickel.

Hence, no place where resurrected bodies could have their place after Resurrection.

The inner core was discovered in 1936 by Inge Lehmann and is composed primarily of iron and some nickel. Since this layer is able to transmit shear waves (transverse seismic waves), it must be solid. Experimental evidence has at times been inconsistent with current crystal models of the core.[34] Other experimental studies show a discrepancy under high pressure: diamond anvil (static) studies at core pressures yield melting temperatures that are approximately 2000 K below those from shock laser (dynamic) studies.[35][36] The laser studies create plasma,[37] and the results are suggestive that constraining inner core conditions will depend on whether the inner core is a solid or is a plasma with the density of a solid. This is an area of active research.


OK, sounds solid.

How far up does this extend?

The transition between the inner core and outer core is located approximately 5,150 km (3,200 mi) beneath Earth's surface. Earth's inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi), which is about 19% of Earth's radius [0.7% of volume] or 70% of the Moon's radius.[32][33]


That's ... big. How big does Hell have to be?

Let's say 2/3 of mankind are damned. Let's also ignore child mortality of unbaptised and pretend all the damned are damned for mortal sins and go to Hell. How many are that? If we can estimate the total number of men over all time, we can estimate this number.

World population is currently 8.2 billion. Someone has estimated that for the first time, the majority of mankind aren't dead people but living people. Unfortunately, they don't count abortions and still births into deaths, and so, this is skewed. Let's say that before Jesus comes, a) mankind will be 10 billion and b) this will be 1/3 (instead of more than 1/2) of mankind. That would make 30 billion people the total of mankind. That would make 20 billion people 2/3. How much space is needed to "accomodate" (or in this case actually incommodate) 20 billion people?

If they all stand up (obviously, they wouldn't be allowed to sit down comfortably in Hell), they will take up "floor space" of about 1/2 m2, and they will be standing up at a heighth of c. 2 m, so, 1 m3 for each (everyone will be adult at the Resurrection, by the way). This makes for 20 000 000 000 m3. In order to get a cube, we need a 2714 m 418 mm side. How much is that of the inner core? Remember, we want it's diameter, not radius.

2 * 1 220 000 / 2 714.418 = 899


How much is that of the whole Earth's diameter? The mean radius is 6 371.0 km ...

2 * 6 371 000 / 2 714.418 = 4 694


I actually used approximations. Without the calculator, I could find out the cube must have a side superior to 2 700 m. But not by how much. For Earth's radius, I recalled 6300 km.

2 * 6 300 000 / 2700 = 4667
or 4666.6666666666666667


A fitting proportion for Hell to have ... the five cases of Apollyon in Attic and Koiné give 4666. And he is the angel of this place. It can truly be called bottomless, since instead of a bottom, it has a centre of gravity, if you fell down from the upper limit of Hell to it, you would continue past it and bounce at the other side.

Given how both my debate opponent and Galileo have [has] tried to pretend a Hell in the innermost of the Earth isn't feasible*, it's fun to see how small it is even for the Inner core. Just a small cavity. I am not sure if and if so how it would show in the transverse seismic waves. What would be very much less fun would be to get there. Some prayers to the Sacred Heart and some penance this Lent would be in order to get things going for the other and better destination. You know, above the fix stars, which are one light day up, or so. For those of us who are still alive, God is merciful.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
27.II.2025

* I'll have to exonerate Galileo on this one. He was just arguing about Dante's Inferno, not about the general idea of Hell being inside Earth.

On the Shape, Location, and Size of Dante's Inferno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Shape,_Location,_and_Size_of_Dante%27s_Inferno

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