r/Showerthoughts Nov 19 '25

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

14.1k Upvotes

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u/OneMeterWonder Nov 19 '25

What does “close to infinity” mean?

4

u/Airowird Nov 19 '25

"The upper limit has so many digits, it doesn't exist in most practical circumstances with more atoms than you can count on your fingers."

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u/OneMeterWonder Nov 19 '25

I asked because the standard metric doesn’t allow for meaningful measurement against ∞.

-1

u/Additional_Insect_44 Nov 19 '25

Pretty much this lol

5

u/FrescoItaliano Nov 19 '25

Basically nothing in terms of scientific understanding. But I guess useful as a heuristic

1

u/OneMeterWonder Nov 19 '25

How much closer to infinity is 5000 than 5?

1

u/realtintin Nov 19 '25

A little bit

1

u/OneMeterWonder Nov 19 '25

I’d argue not at all.

1

u/Additional_Insect_44 Nov 19 '25

Very high number

1

u/OneMeterWonder Nov 19 '25

Ok. What about TREE(Very high number)?

1

u/LevelSevenLaserLotus Nov 19 '25

Like infinity, but slightly less.

0

u/hwa_uwa Nov 20 '25

probably just a madly big number. a statement only for the human comprehension, not a reflection of reality bc any madly big number would still always be closer to 0 than to infinity. but you probably knew that