What happens at certain temperatures?

Question

I have been given this weekend physics task of finding out what happens at certain temperatures (We are in the topic of matter and e=kt and all that stuff...) The book I have gives examples such as:

At 6 million K, ionisation of inner electrons of atoms...

Apparently, according to my physics teacher, thats boring...

Anyone have any ideas of any interesting temperature stuff?

Answer 1

Energy of radiation inside the volume containment of the atom is directly proportional to the temperature energy entering the atom.
Adding and removal of temperature energy causes phase changes in atomic structures.

If we remove heat completely out of an atom the atomic would be in a state of freezing;that means that all gases are solid at temperature zero.

If we add heat to a solid to a certain temperature its atoms will turn into gas and then another state called plasma.

Hence matter can exist into two different state at different exremes of temprature energy. One is the frozen atom a zero K. and the other is Plasma atoms which occurs at different plasma temperature depending on the type of atomic structure.
The temperature of the Sun is at plasma temperature .
The temprature of the mass structure of Jupiter is hydrogen atoms in the frozen state.

Note; the perfectly frozen state of the atom cannot be reached exactly because the Universe has a residual temperature of 2.7 K per meter cube of the Universal volume.

Hpoe you find this expalnation a bit more interesting.

Answer 2

You're right - it IS boring. Try these on her:

At 4.2 K Liquid Helium becomes a superfluid. You can wave a paddle in it and it will require more work to do the same in a vacuum.

You can set up standing temperature waves in it. It will climb up the sides of its own container, down the outside, all by itself, and drip from the lowest point.

At exactly 277 K, water is at its maximum density, this is why fish can live under the water of a frozen pond, as the bottom never gets colder than 4 deg C (277K) because water that is denser always sinks.

At 451 deg F (YOU work out what it is in K) paper spontaneously bursts into flame (Hence the title of Ray Bradbury's book "Farenheit 451").

The temperature of the outerlying gases of the sun (the corona) is about 5000 K, hotter than the surface.

Hydrogen's first ionisation state (where the electron is taken from the atom to infinity) is 13.6 eV (you work out the equivalent temperature using E = kT)

STP in Chemistry is defined to be 293K ( I think) . STP is " Standard Temperature and Pressure).

Is that enough?

Answer 3

close to absolute zero, ( 0 Kelvin),
scientists have proven the existence of the 5th state of matter, 'bose einstein condensates' which was predicted by albert einstein following from work from someone called bose :p
matter in a state like this, exhibits strange behaviour, due to the fact it has virtually no energy, friction cannot reduce its energy much further, so it doesnt form a meniscus, and spontaneously flows out of a beaker, but if it comes in contact to anything warmer than itself, it will undergo a change of state.
In this state, quantum effects become apparent, such as inteference. You should look 'bose einstein condensates' up on wiki or something

Answer 4

Any diode or diode related transistor will cut back the forward voltage @ -2.9mv/degree C. in case you forward bias the diode @~10uA then degree the forward voltage you have a thermometer.