• Question: What temperature is absolute zero and how do we know?

    Asked by matthewb to Alex, Jools, Lynz, Matt, Rika on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Lyndsey Fox

      Lyndsey Fox answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Another physics question! Hopefully someone else will explain this better than I’m about to…

      Physicists often like to use a different scale for temperature that is directly related to the speed atoms are going in a gas. This is called the Absolute scale, and one degree on it is the same as one degree centigrade. .

      When the atoms are all stopped the gas is ABSOLUTELY as cold as can be!

      That is super cold! . Absolute Zero is -459 degrees Fahrenheit or as −273.15C on the Celcius scale.
      The coldest place in nature is the depths of outer space. There it is 3 degrees above Absolute Zero

    • Photo: Matthew Dickinson

      Matthew Dickinson answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Now I am not an expert at this, but when I was watching BBC 2 a couple of weeks ago I watch a TV show that discussed this subject. What was suggested is that atoms that hold thing together only can do this job in a certain temp if we make atoms stop entirely we can break things easy like freezing metal and then hitting with an hammer and it will smash, it is said that absolute zero happens and atoms will pass through things

      check thid out its well cool, I know sad joke but I had to try.

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