what happens when something is cooled to 0 degrees kelvin?

Answer 1

What happens if you reach a temperature 0 kelvin (No degrees when you use this unit)? When a body cools it loses its internal energy and therefore the molecules slow down (if gas or liquid) or vibrate less (if a solid). Now, William Thomson, 1st Baron of Kelvin (that's where the name came from), in 1848, when studying the expansion of gases, he plotted of graph of volume against temperature.
The result showed that they are proportional, but when he found out at what temperature the volume should become 0, all gases tended to cross the Temperature axis at the same value: -273 degree celsius.

Theoretically this meant that if the volume were to be zero, all molecular movement has to stop. Imagine a container of air. Should it be cooled to -273 degree celsius (or 0K), that gas would vanish - volume becomes zero!

Up till now this temperature has not been reached, and for some it is an impossibility since you need a cooler temperature to cool down something (like the cold ice cubes cool your coke) and -273 Centigrade is the lowest possible temperature.

Why can't you go less than -273C? Temperature is a value of the hotness of an object, and Heat is the energy which drives the vibrations or movement of molecules. Hence, no movement entails no Heat Energy, and nothing cold be cooler than a place where there are no molecular vibrations.

Scientists are puzzled as to what happens if you reach that temperature. Some argue that molecular movement stops. Others state that for Kelvin's theory to be correct, i.e. 0 volume, all the atomic movement should stop: electrons stop rotating and collapse into the nucleus.

Answer 2

0 Degrees Kelvin

Answer 3

Thief, a black hole is far more than an object in absolute zero (0 K). A black hole is an extremely dense, so very massive object that has immense gravitation that even light doesn't escape it's gravity. Black holes are formed when massive stars (a lot bigger than our sun) die out. Before a massive star dies out, it can become a red giant or a white dwarf or a neutron star depending on it's mass. Our sun, which is relatively less massive, will become a red giant when it's fuel (hydrogen) almost runs out. For a more massive star, owing to it's huge gravity and the resultant high temerature and pressure, the helium atoms (resultant from fusion of hydrogen) fuse to leave carbon. Such stars are called white dwarves. If a star of far greater mass nears it's end, it'll more likely explode as a brilliant flash releasing immense amounts of energy into the cosmos. Such an explosion is called a super nova. The resultant mass in such a case will more likely be so immense that it implodes owing to it's own gravity and becomes almost a point in space. Such a point has extreme gravitational pull and is called a black hole. And ya, no object can be practically cooled down to absolute zero. Hope this answers ur question.. :-)

Answer 4

No they have not reached 0. I believe 17 or 19 is as close as they have gotten with multi billion dollar projects.

The main talk behind 0 degree Kelvin is that when certain compounds reach that temperatre they would theorectically have 0 electrical resistance to current, and therfore not heat. If this was possible it would REVOLUTIONISE the world and engery supply, and also be able to answer many questions about what atoms are made from.

Answer 5

It might be possible but as the other person said all motion would stop, the material at that temperature would have zero energy. It's theorized that matter itself would disentigrate into a pile of subatomic particles.

There have been experiments with liquid helium which is pretty close to 0 K. You might look those up. Strange quantum mechanical effects can be physically observed. Such as spinning the liquid helium in a container it doesn't develop a conical vortex but jumps directly from spinning flat to spinning on the sides of the container.

Answer 6

It is just as impossible to reach 0 Kelvin as it is to reach an infinite temperature.

Answer 7

I believe that the object will start to act similar to a quantum particle(the object is then a new state of matter "bose-einstein condensate"), as predicted by bose and einstein about 80 years ago. Quantum particles can't have their position and velocity described accurately, as everyday objects can. They can't necessarily even be said to exist as particles, rather they can be probability fields.

Things have recently been cooled SO close to absolute zero that they they acted as B-E condensates.

Wolfgang Ketterle, at MIT, won the nobel prize in physics, 2001, for his work in cooling things to as close to 0k as is possible, currently. You can watch him talk about his work and B-E condensates in this webcast:
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/192/

Answer 8

I do not believe they have actually achieved absolute 0 degress kelvins, but have very close.

In which case, whatever you froze is a very hard mass, that is easily shattered.

Answer 9

Theoretically, nothing. All motion would stop, but bequalmin is correct. I do not think it has ever been done, although there are records of experiments close to zero degrees K.

Answer 10

All atomic activity would cease. There would be no motion of electrons, no vibrations of particles (even in their lowest energy state, all particles vibrate).

That's the main reason it is considered to be an unattainable temperature.