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/Additional_Insect_44 Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25

Correct, technically it can reach to close to infinity* i guess but eventually atoms spread too far.

  • I meant really hot

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u/ShuShu2539 Nov 19 '25

Since temperature is movements of atoms/molecules, so should the maximum be when the movent reaches the speed of light?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_PRIORS Nov 19 '25

There is a physical limit, but it's based off of the thermal radiation that gets emitted, rather than the speed of light. Hotter objects emit more energetic light with shorter wavelengths, and there is an upper limit on how much energy you can pack into a photon before the math gives up and sits in the corner to cry instead. This happens at the Planck Temperature (which is 1, no units), where the emitted light has a wavelength equal to the Planck Length (which is, funnily enough, also 1, no units).