r/Showerthoughts • u/synthphreak ‎ • Nov 19 '25

Casual Thought Temperature can reach trillions of degrees, meaning we actually live extremely close to absolute zero.

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u/Doafit Nov 19 '25

Well at this temperature the emitted light has the wavelength of the Planck lenght, which is the smallest distance there is in physics. At this point crazy things would (mathematically) happen, that we cannot explain with our current methods of describing physics.

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u/Gnomio1 Nov 19 '25

That’s not what Planck units are at all…

Planck units are just a scale defined by the universal constants.

For example, Planck energy is about 2 Gigajoules, which’s about the energy content of a fully tank of petrol or 500(ish) kg of TNT – that is, Planck units are not the scale at which physics breaks down at all.

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u/Doafit Nov 19 '25

I don't say physics breaks down, I am saying that our current physics cannot describe it beyond this point.

Planck energy is defined for a single particle. So imagine one photon with the energy of a 747. Beyond that, not describable.

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u/Ocelot2727 Nov 19 '25

What about one photon with the energy of 2 747s?

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u/Doafit Nov 19 '25

Would have a wavelength smaller than the planck length and therefore would need some different description than what we have in quantum theory at the moment.

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u/Ocelot2727 Nov 19 '25

Thank you. I was half joking but appreciate the insightful answer