If the temperature is 0 degrees outside, what would the temperature be if it gets twice as cold?

Answer 1

There is no answer, because the question is meaningless. There is no such thing as "twice as cold" because cold isn't something you can measure.

You could, however, ask what the temperature would be if it was half as warm.

Since 0 degrees Fahrenheit = 255.22 degrees Kelvin, half as warm would be 127.61 degrees Kelvin, which is -229.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Answer 2

Why do people keep asking this question all of a sudden - was it on TV or something?

Anyway, to answer your question with the same answer I just gave elsewhere...

There's a problem in answering your question in that you can't multiply temperatures in the same way you can with other numbers and that's because the two most commonly used measurements (Fahrenheit and Celsius / Centigrade) aren't relative.

If your question was - today I cycled 10mph and tomorrow I'm going to cycle twice as fast, how fast will I go tomorrow? That would make sense because speed is relative. On the scale of speed 0 is the slowest but with temperature 0 isn't the coldest.

Unless... you're talking about the Kelvin or Rankine scales which take the coldest possible temperature as being 0. This is 273.15 degrees Celsius below freezing and is called Absolute Zero, it's the temperature at which everything freezes.

Using the Kelvin scale temperatures can be multiplied and if today's temperature was 0 Kelvin then tomorrow's would also be 0 Kelvin (0 x 2 = 0).

If it was 0 Celsius today we could convert that to Kelvin (273.15K) then multiply by 2 which would mean the temperature tomorrow would be 273.15 Celsius. Converting 0 Fahrenheit to Kelvin, multiplying by 2 and converting back to Fahrenheit would give a temperature for tomorrow of 459.67 F.

Let's hope that tomorrow isn't twice as cold (or hot) as today.

Answer 3

Its impossible to tell. Although 0 x 2 = 0, this is not the case with this question. It is a case of 'doubling'. Imagine you are in a freezing room, for it to be twice as cold it would be a hell of a lot more colder, so it would not be the same temperature. I know that sounds obvious but im just stating that the times table does not apply for this very simple reason.

Answer 4

You did not specify whether it is 0 degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit or Kelvin, but let's assume Fahrenheit.

At 0 degrees Fahrenheit you are 459.67 °F degrees away from absolute zero, or the point where there is no heat energy left in matter. It is a direct relationship between temperature and heat...

So, absolute zero = -459.67 F. If the temp is 0 than halfway between absolute (-459.67 ) and 0 is:

-229.88 Degrees Fahrenheit is twice as cold as Zero

Answer 5

It all depends on where your starting place is. If you are talking in Kelvins, where 0 is absolute zero, the temperature would be about -136 C, or 136 K asuming you were on the Celcuis scale. On Farenheit, it would be about -257 F.

But, if you are starting from, say, room temperature, 70 F, twice as cold would be -140 F.

Answer 6

Twice as cold as what?
I believe that you need to know the differential in order to answer this.
If it were 12 degrees and dropped to 7 degrees, then became twice as cold it would be:
5 degree differential X 2 = 10. 7 - 10 = -3 degrees.
If it is 0 we need to know what it was before it became zero to figure out the "twice as cold" numbers.

Answer 7

0 degrees

Answer 8

-2 Degrees

Answer 9

-1 degree. you figure if you started at 0 then had 1 you had twice as much as before

Answer 10

Since the lowest temperature is absolute zero I would say that to get halfway to that point from 0 degrees would be -136.6°C.