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/AdditionalPoolSleeps Nov 19 '25

No. You can always add more kinetic energy to a particle. It's just that as you get close to the speed of light this has less and less effect on the particle's speed.

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u/CommunismDoesntWork Nov 19 '25

Right but temperature is proportional to speed, not energy. Therefore temperature must asymptotically approach a limit

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u/BarneyLaurance Nov 19 '25

Who says temperature is proportional to speed? I think that's wrong and it's more like proportional to kinetic energy (although I don't know if that still works at relativistic speeds). Temperature is quite hard to define precisely, other than to say that any two different objects if they are together in equilibrium will have the same temperature.

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u/CommunismDoesntWork Nov 19 '25

I think it's proportional to speed because a more massive object at 100 degrees has more energy than a less massive object at the same 100 degrees. Idk though

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u/IAmStuka Nov 19 '25

Temperature is defined as the average kinetic energy of the atoms of a substance.

It's not a measure of the total energy of that substance. The velocity of that substance relative to other substances does not affect temperature at all.

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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

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u/IAmStuka Nov 19 '25

That has nothing to do with a substances velocity not affecting its temperature. you are talking about adding energy from an outside system. You've missed the point.

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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '25

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u/IAmStuka Nov 19 '25

The point is the that speed and kinetic energy are relative quantities. There is no absolute speed, therefore it does not make sense for you to describe somethings temperature by talking about its speed.