Eli5: I’m trying to find the best way to word this but how does one measure “negative degrees”, like in temperature, like how do you quantify the absence of something that isn’t tangible?

Question

Eli5: I’m trying to find the best way to word this but how does one measure “negative degrees”, like in temperature, like how do you quantify the absence of something that isn’t tangible?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Temperature isn’t actually negative. The difference between -15 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 degrees Fahrenheit would be the same difference as 0-100 if the scale was moved down. There’s no objective basis for temperature besides Kelvin, where 0 means molecules stop moving and anything below it isn’t possible.