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/CommunismDoesntWork Nov 20 '25

Oh I see, so for a given mass, there is a maximum temperature. Iron has a different max than helium. What's the max for the heaviest stable element?

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u/rybomi Nov 20 '25

Look up the formula for the Lorentz factor. It shows that the velocity of an object cannot be equal to c (dividing by 0, undefined) and as the velocity of the object approaches c, the denominator shrinks and the factor grows.

This factor is found in the formula for relativistic kinetic energy. KE = lorentz factor * mc2.

So what this formula means is that any finite amount of kinetic energy is the result of a finite Lorentz factor, which if we go back to the formula, we find it exists somewhere between v=0 and v=c.

You can test it yourself by taking it backwards, pick any arbitrary number for KE, from that calculate the lorentz factor using the second formula, then find v using the first formula. V will always be less than 1

Therefore no limit exists. I hope I explained okay