Is there an absolute zero and why ?

Question

How low can the temperature get.? Is there a limit or can it go as low as say Minus a million ?

Answer 1

Theoretically yes, there is K = 0, where K is degrees Kelvin, a temperature scale that begins at absolute zero. However, no one has yet reached K = 0 in experiments; so it remains a theory.

Temperature is a measure of molecular energy that causes molecules to vibrate. At zero, all vibration would cease.

Unfortunately, for the experimental physicists, it takes more energy than they can come up with to suck out that last little bit of energy that keeps molecules vibrating. Thus, they have been unable to actually reach absolute zero.

So there is a limit (absolute zero) on the cold side. The limit on the hot side would be whatever the temperature of the universe was immediately after the big bang. The universe has been cooling down ever since. Once the universe is totally cooled down, theory says it will have reached absolute zero degrees.

Answer 2

The answer is yet and no.

Thermodynamically it is possible to define a zero on the temperature scale. This is the basis for the Kelvin scale. The thermodynamic absolute zero is well below the temperatre at which all vibration of atoms in the crystal lattice stops. There remain other motions though that contribute to temperatre, such as nucelar vibrations.

Very low termperatures are achieved in the lab by condensation techniques., For instance, all nuclear magnetic moments can be aligned in a magnetic field, then the lattice cooled and the field removed. The moments then re-align and this takes more energy, so things cool further.

The lowest temperature achieved is 4.5 x 10^-10 K in a Bose Einstein condensation of sodium atoms. This is well below where lattice motion would have stopped.

The no part comes from quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics it is not possible to simultaneously precisely specify the momentum and position of a particle. This means there is always a residual energy however cold you get - so called zero point energy. This applies even in a complete vacuum and can be measured (the Casimir effect). Hence there is no true zero that can be reached.

Ironically however you can reach minus infinity on the thermodynamic temperature scale. This is the thermodynamic temperature of the lasing state of a laser.

Answer 3

There is no limit to how hot an object can be, but the lowest temperature is absolute zero at -273.15deg.C or 0 K. The lowest temperatures which occur naturally are on Triton in the Solar System and in inter-galactic space. Much lower temperatures can be created in the laboratory, but not as low as Absolute Zero!

Answer 4

Yes, there is an absolute zero. Why? Because heat (the energy of random jiggling) will always flow from higher to lower temperature, and you can only get so much heat out of anything. There has to be a bottom state, and this is the one with no heat to transfer at all.

Answer 5

There is a theoretical bottom limit on temperature. Since temperature is a measurement of average vibrational motion of molecules, when molecules stop moving(aka have no energy) the temperature should be zero. The actual temperature that this comes back to is -273.15 degrees celcius.

Answer 6

The above answers are pretty good except for one point (see epidavros).

Absolute zero is not defined by absence of all vibration. In quantum mechanics it is defined by all particles being the their ground state. Then the material will have its lowest possible energy. But as epidavros states, the ground state still has some motion. That motion IS consistent with being at absolute zero.

Answer 7

At -276 degrees C electrons stop orbiting atoms. This is absolute zero. Celsius degrees are the same size as Kelvin degrees. So the freezing point of water is 276 K, and normal body temperature is 313 K.

Answer 8

Of course there is an absolute zero. If they don't know, the faster molecules move, the hotter the object is. And what's the slowest something can go, zero. That temperature is -273.15 degrees C, nothing can go lower than that.

Please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_Zero for more.

Answer 9

There is do a search for absolute zero on the web. I cant remeber the exact temp in feirinheight, but it is 0 on the Kelvin scale and is the point at which all matter stops moving.

Answer 10

Absolute zero (-273.19 degrees Celsius) is the lowest that it can go theoretically by extrapolating the Volume-Temp graph (Charles' Law).

However, as the temperature of outer space is lowest at 4 K (Kelvin), no other substance can go below 4 K naturally.