Absolute HOTNESS!!

[brennan]

Prove it. Go as fast as light and not go any faster...

And then we'll all go for breakfast at Milliways.

 

[FriendlyFire]

When matter goes from gas to plasma i would guess

 

[Perfection]

When matter goes from gas to plasma i would guess

Oh no! That's just the beginning! All sorts of crazy stuff can happen at even higher temperatures! Certain forces start behaving like other forces, nuclei break down, weird quark stuff happens.

It's a mess!

 

[HawkeyeGS]

well temperature is equal to average kenetic energy. Hence the biggest molecule possible moving at speed of light. I have no idea what that is though

 

[Perfection]

well temperature is equal to average kenetic energy. Hence the biggest molecule possible moving at speed of light. I have no idea what that is though

Temperature is not equal to average kenetic energy. However, in most systems we deal with it's proportional to average kenetic energy. Temperature is defined thermodynamically using entropy relations. Under systems like gases these entropy definitions are proportional to kinetic energy, but under other systems like plasma other forms of energy come into play (EM in this case).

 

[Rambuchan]

Reported for misleading us with the thread title.

[/joke]

 

[brennan]

Reported for misleading us with the thread title.

[/joke]

I wasn't going to mention that...

 

[batteryacid]

For 0°K : Can´t be reached in praxis due to Heisenberg uncertainty, but cooling down of a gas below temperatures that are available in the lab is made similar to evaporation: the atoms are trapped in a local minimum of some kind of potential (produced by lasers or other electromagnetic fields). By fiddling around with the potential energies, you allow the "hottest" atoms to escape the trap, and the remaining atoms have a lower energy. You loose an enormous amount of atoms though in trapping those with the lowest energy to reach some millionth K

For a highest possible Temperature: I think that there is no theoretical maximum because kinetic energy of molecules have no limit, even in relativistic notation, but practically there migth be a maximum that can be reached, as the molecule´s ballistic energies must at some point high enough that by a collision of two atoms new matter is produced (which is done in CERN and other accelerators), and according to E=mc2 , thermal energy is lost.

 

[Kosez]

On maximum speed light.

I remember I read in some non-scientific newspaper, a year or two ago, that scientist were able to accelerate light above the speed of light. Experiment look something like this: they had a long box and some gas in it (I don't remember which gas it was), they pointed light source from one side of the box through the box, and light came out faster than it went in.

Please, don't try to prove me wrong, check it up somewhere. I just posted because I remembered that article.

 

[Kozmos]

I entered expecting lewd pictures. I am dissapointed.

 

[classical_hero]

Abosulte hotness is girl that I like.

That is what I thought this tread ws about also. It seems I am not the only one.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

And then we'll all go for breakfast at Milliways.

Hello, I am tonight's main course. Can I interest you in various parts of my body?

Is it me or are the HHGttG quotes almost a cliche in here?

Meh.

 

[stuge]

Kinda off topic, but whats the closest people have gotten to absolute zero and is it even possible to reach absoulte zero.

Like others have said, it's impossible to reach absolute zero. But it's possible to go beyond it.

Don't ask me how. Just a tidbit I remember from my physics lessons.

 

[Norseman2]

I've asked this to theoretical Physics "experts" and included that "heat = movement of parts". Since there exists a maximum velocity (lightspeed) does that mean there is a max temp?
Answer turned out to be "no" because as speed approaches lightspeed, temp approaches infinity. Can't recall exactly why but some physicist might be able to explain that to you.

Lightspeed is a maximum velocity that nothing can reach. For the same reason that you can't reach the speed of light, you can't reach a maximum temperature. You will always be able to go faster, things will always be able to get hotter, you just suffer from diminishing returns.

 

[Paradigne]

Wouldn't it be when a solid becomes a gas???

 

[Souron]

It's impossible via Heisenberg's uncertiancy principle (and probobly other laws too). Which (as you probably arleady know) states that the uncertainty in momentum times the uncertainty in position must be greater then or equal to a certain constant (reduced Plancl's constant devided by two). For any particle as temperature goes to zero the momentum goes to zero. As this goes to zero the uncertainty of momentum goes to zero and hence the uncertainty in position must increase without bound and at some point your particles will be outside of the experimental apparatus.

Actually the explanation I read was a little different, because it also refered empty spaces.

It went something like this. The Heisenberg's Uncertiancy Principle also states that you cannot know both the magnetic and electric feild of a given point to absolute persision at the same time. Both types of feild require energy so if you have either an electic feild or a magnetic feild present, the temperature is above absolute 0. Moreover, because of the Uncertainty principle, you have to have one present, because if you know for sure one is 0, then you cannot know anything about the other.

So even empty space cannot be at absolute 0.

 

[Souron]

On maximum speed light.

I remember I read in some non-scientific newspaper, a year or two ago, that scientist were able to accelerate light above the speed of light. Experiment look something like this: they had a long box and some gas in it (I don't remember which gas it was), they pointed light source from one side of the box through the box, and light came out faster than it went in.

Please, don't try to prove me wrong, check it up somewhere. I just posted because I remembered that article.

Yeah, that was real. There not going above the speed of light in a vacume, though. If I remmember correctly, the experiment showed light finish going out of a cilindar before it finished comming it.

It's really cool, but it's not FTL.

 

[Mise]

You CAN make light go faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, using a clever Laser gain/loss trick. The information it contains, however, is still limited to c.

 

[JoeM]

For a highest possible Temperature: I think that there is no theoretical maximum because kinetic energy of molecules have no limit,

Well the limit would have to be the sum total energy of the universe concentrated into a single point, and given entropy, a particulat point in time.

If you want an answer you want to speak to people who talk more about Planck and termodynamics, and less about the speed of light.

And for absolute zero, apply the same equation, but wait until entropy has brought about the heat death of the universe.

 

[Souron]

I have heard that c is actually the average speed of light, and a straight line its average path, though I'm not sure how much trust to put in such things (it was my secondary school physics teacher who told me).

This is technically true. The average speed of light in a vacum.

This is because of the uncertainty principle. With light, just as with any other particle, you cannot know both the position and velocity (speed and direction) at the same time.
If you were to amit a photon, according to classical (non-quantum) theory, you would know it's possition (you just amited it), speed (c) and direction of mation (a strait line away from the source). The Uncertaity principle states that those assumptions are wrong. Light does not travel in strait lines or at a constant speed.

Of course the rule is that it has to average out to traveling in a strait line at the speed of c. This is because there is equal probability that the light would go a little under the speed of light as there is that is would go a little over. And equal proabability to going a little left of a little right. Thus classically, we can think of light going in strait lines at a constant speed.

This has nothing to do with the color of light. Although as mentioned by someone earlier, different colors do travel at different speeds through different mediums.