Is there an opposite to absolute zero?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html

by ingenium • 19 years ago

7 4 19 years ago

derefr• 19 years ago

I don't quite understand. Heat is a measure of the vibrational kinetic energy any individual molecule possesses as it travels along, right? So, shouldn't the maximum temperature just be whatever the unit conversion is for one C-per-oscillation? That is, at no time should a particle be able to be pushed by its vibration into a velocity greater than light, correct?

pfedor• 19 years ago

The kinetic energy goes to infinity as the speed of a particle approaches the speed of light, so there's no upper bound on the kinetic energy a particle can have in special relativity. The formula you possibly had in mind, mv^2/2, is valid only for v much less than c; for relativistic velocities the energy of a particle is equal to mc^2/sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2).

BTW, it's any kinetic energy that contributes to the temperature, not necessarily vibrational.

downer• 19 years ago

Yeah, Chuck Norris.

icky• 19 years ago

Absolute one!

Is there an opposite to absolute zero?

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