about therm..

[sky]

i was lying down and start to thinking randomly. I was thinking about the scale of thermometer. It's just weird to have something below 0 degree. I think 0 degree means that there's no more heat to release. So how come some object can become colder when there's no more heat to release? Is there any limit where something can no more become colder? If there's any then we should make a new scale of degree.

 

I'm curious about how it's gonna be if we just keep absorbing heat from one object . Will we found a new state of matter?  I've read about plasma though. 

I'm new in science world and my major doesn't even close to science. So forgive me if the question is not good enough.. hahaha.. I'm just curious.

 

[ajb]

Look up absolute zero. It is 0K on the Kelvin scale and is the theoretical lowest temperature possible, it is the temperature at which the system would have it's minimum entropy. In practice, no system can really be brought to 0K.

[Mr Skeptic]

And yes, a lot of equations require you to use an absolute scale. The reasons we don't use an absolute scale are both historical and convenience (because people don't really like all their temperatures to be 3 digits long).

[sky]

Look up absolute zero. It is 0K on the Kelvin scale and is the theoretical lowest temperature possible, it is the temperature at which the system would have it's minimum entropy. In practice, no system can really be brought to 0K.

 

 

How did mark it as lowest temperature possible? Is it because you don't have any technology to make it lower? or it's because there is no more reaction when you try to make it lower? is it a research or theory?

 

And yes, a lot of equations require you to use an absolute scale. The reasons we don't use an absolute scale are both historical and convenience (because people don't really like all their temperatures to be 3 digits long).

 

What do you mean by historical?

 

 

 

 

 

I'm excited! haha..

 

 

[ajb]

Lord Kelvin discovered it based on thermodynamics. It is the theoretical lowest temperature. It is not a technology barrier, it is part of nature.

 

Quantum mechanics will in practice not allow a system to reach absolute zero, but there are experiments that come close. Half-a-billionth of a degree above absolute zero is quoted.

Edited August 3, 2010 by ajb

[swansont]

 

 

What do you mean by historical?

 

 

 

Relative scales came into use first, before the existence of absolute zero was discovered. As ajb noted, these scales were devised for human convenience.

[sky]

Got it, and i just read about absolute zero on wiki.  thanks a lot