Clackers2020 t1_j6m8mu8 wrote
Hot objects have more energy than cold objects. If we used absolute zero as the upper limit then all temperatures would be negative which implies all objects have negative energy which makes no sense.
AxialGem t1_j6m975o wrote
Why would you use zero as the 'upper limit'?
You could very easily make a scale where water freezes at 100 and boils at 0.
Then the absolute highest point on the scale would be 373.15, and anything warmer than boiling would just dip into negative figures
Clackers2020 t1_j6m9d4w wrote
It was just a non-arbitary point. My point still stands with whatever number you choose. Because there's no maximum temperature you'd still eventually end up in negatives.
AxialGem t1_j6m9oab wrote
Yea, that's true. But...scale with negative numbers is still a perfectly functional scale of course. I'm just saying OP's thought is still valid I guess :p
Crux_AMVS24 OP t1_j6m9crn wrote
About the energy thing, temperature isn’t actually a measure of the energy of a system, only proportional to it, from the way we’ve defined it. Also I don’t mean reverse the scale, but invert it. Therefore a temperature tending to “absolute zero” tends to infinity, which does make sense since it’s impossible to physically reach absolute zero
Raeandray t1_j6o8exc wrote
Except we know there's a lower range for temperature (zero kelvin). We don't know really know the upper range. Being impossible to reach zero isn't the same as infinity, and I don't know how you'd scale heat increases as you get exponentially hotter.
As an example, the hottest theoretical temperature is Planck temperature, which is 10^32 kelvin. How do you scale that in reverse? Assume 10^32 is 1, so our regular temperatures start at 10^31.9999...? I don't know how you'd apply an inverse scale like this in a realistic way. Its nonsensical.
I-dont-rickroll t1_j6pdpu9 wrote
>> Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules in the system
>> Heat is thermal energy transferred from a hotter system to a cooler system that are in contact
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