

Is there an opposite to absolute zero? - ingenium
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html

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derefr
I don't quite understand. Heat is a measure of the vibrational kinetic energy
any individual molecule possesses as it travels along, right? So, shouldn't
the maximum temperature just be whatever the unit conversion is for one C-per-
oscillation? That is, at no time should a particle be able to be pushed by its
vibration into a velocity greater than light, correct?

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pfedor
The kinetic energy goes to infinity as the speed of a particle approaches the
speed of light, so there's no upper bound on the kinetic energy a particle can
have in special relativity. The formula you possibly had in mind, mv^2/2, is
valid only for v much less than c; for relativistic velocities the energy of a
particle is equal to mc^2/sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2).

BTW, it's any kinetic energy that contributes to the temperature, not
necessarily vibrational.

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icky
Absolute one!

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downer
Yeah, Chuck Norris.

