Why can't temperature ever reach absolute zero?

Answer 1

Absolute zero is the point on the thermodynamic (absolute) temperature scale where the heat energy is at a minimum, that is, no more heat can be removed from the system. According to classical physics this temperature would correspond to zero kinetic energy of the particles of the system, in the reference frame of the system's center of mass; this, however, is now known to be false—quantum mechanics explains why the energy of a system can never drop below its zero-point energy.

Answer 2

What Temperature Is Absolute Zero

Answer 3

From measurements on gases. Pressure and volume are directly proportional to temperature, but there is an offset. For any gas, the pressure and volume would be zero at a temperature of about -273.15°. (In actual fact, all real gases liquefy at higher temperatures. But because the graph is a straight line, we can extend it. Also, a gas could never have zero volume; because even as a solid, the particles of which it is made would take up some space. However, in most gases, the volume of the particles is negligible compared to the volume of the container. Gases also tend to liquefy at very high pressures, because higher pressure means more particles and the volume of the particles becomes appreciable.) Kinetic theory says that temperature is due to the particles in a substance bouncing around: the hotter it is, the greater the vibration. This explains many phenomena, including the pressure of gases, the behaviour of liquids and solids, heat transfer by conduction, the fact that heating speeds up chemical reactions (particles can only react when they collide into one another with sufficient energy) and thermal noise in electronic components. Absolute Zero is the temperature at which particles do not vibrate at all. It's not possible to realise such a temperature in practice because the colder something is, the faster it heats up. Even deep space is a few degrees hotter than absolute zero, just from the few stray particles that are floating about picking up radiant heat from stars. And even if you did, no thermometer would work!

Answer 4

as has been said, you can't reach absolute zero because you can't stop the kinetic energy. well, that's accurate, but redundant. It's like saying you can't remove all the heat because it's not possible to stop heat.

The REAL reason we (almost assuredly) know that you can never reach absolute zero is because it is a direct contradiction to the uncertainty principle. Uncertainty principle states that there is no way to know the exact position and velocity of a particle, in fact, the more we know about one characteristic, the less it is possible for us to know about the other. At zero kelvin, (as has been noted) all motion of particles would stop. the velocity vector would be zero and the position could be known absolutely... in other words, it's a violation of a well known and established physics law.

Answer 5

because you'd need zero thermal energy, and for this you'd need to be in a perfect vacuum, and be able to extract all the energy out. But in practice, even interstellar space is far from really empty. And all the heat extracting installations will always end up leaking some energy back in.

Answer 6

You guys are soo stupid you don't even know what absolute zero is
first lets see the second law of thermodynamics
you need energy to transfer thermal energy from a colder object to a hotter object
So to cool down an object to 1 K, you need a lot of energy
if you were to cool that down even more, you would need a lot of energy to even cool it down by 0.1 K
so to reach absolute zero, you need an infinite amount of energy, which we don't have

Answer 7

In simple terms, quantum theory says you can not remove all energy from a molecule and if you reach absolute zero, then all kinetic energy is removed. Since this is a contradiction, it is not possible to reach absolute zero.

Answer 8

Molecular motion generates heat, therefore, you could not reach absolute 0. If you even attempted to, something very awful would happen!
The most basic element of matter is the quark, of which there are three in every atom (neutron,proton and electron).
If you were to reduce its energy to 0, you would destroy it.
Since all quarks must reflect each other by thier relative energy, you would essentially destroy the universe!
To understand what I mean, you must realize Einstein's relation of mass to energy. If there is no energy, there is no motion, and therefore, no mass. (Since a quark cannot be separated any farther)

Answer 9

To put it for you in simple terms, Quantum Mechanics state that we can know a particles speed or position, but not both at the same time. If we knew a particles speed and position both at the same time it wouldn't exist. At absolute zero the particles would not be moving, thus we would know the particles speed and position, and therefore it is not possible as then the particle wouldn't exist

Answer 10

Because it's impossible to stop all kinetic energy completely...so there will always be some heat. Scientists have tried, but absolute zero remains unattainable.