My SO said the above statement and gave me an explanation “Cold is the absence of heat or energy”, it does make sense however in my head it is like saying (in very simplistic terms) “the countryside is the absence of a city” and that is just a ridiculous statement.
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Cold, in the way that it’s commonly meant, is a relative measure, and it’s relative to things like cool, warm, hot, etc. However heat (not hot) is an objective measure of a specific type of energy. Cold things have less of this energy than hot things. This is what people mean when they say that “cold is the absence of heat”.
Cold is indeed the absence of heat/energy but it is still a useful concept. The lack of something is still something. Gravity may not seem that important in space since there is no or very little gravity when you’re not near large celestial bodies but whether it’s the lack of or greater magnitudes of gravity, it’s still important.
It depends on the context. You are right that in concrete terms heat exists and cold doesn’t. But in relative terms humans, and other animals, experience feelings of hot and cold.
Cold is like having one hundred people (people being atoms)walk very slowly in an enclosed space. It gives time for the people walking slowly to interact with each other if they want to (form bonds and other cool chemical stuff for atoms). Being Hot is those 100 running as fast as they can in that enclosed space, they don’t have time to talk to each other since they’re running so quick and they bump off of each other, sometimes causing you rip something from those people by accident.
And what dictates whether they walk or run? Energy. It’s not so much the absence of energy, but the level of energy that determines hot or cold. Absence of energy has never been seen or recreated in a lab, as far as we know it’s possible but it’s never been seen. Hope that helps!
In a way, there is no such thing as cold. Cold itself is not an energy or a force. Cold is the absence of heat. The reason people use this expression is to remind people what hot and cold actually are. Temperature is basically movement; it is kinetic energy of the molecules. More movement equals more heat. There isn’t a negative type of movement where things get colder if they move more. It’s a single function.
“The countryside is the absence of a city” is not an equivalent statement. For example, the surface of the sun has no cities, but you would not call it the countryside.
no, it’s like saying “dark is the absence of light” which makes perfect sense. You can only make something dark by removing or blocking sources of light.
“Cold” is only a descriptive term while “heat” is an actual scientific term. On the atomic and subatomic levels, the particles are constantly moving or vibrating and as long as this is happening, there will be heat. If you defined cold as an absence of heat, then cold technically doesn’t exist because absolute zero (where all particles completely stop moving and there is no heat) doesn’t exist in the universe.
The analogy in your head may be part of the problem. Cold is the default state of things. Countryside is not the default state of things. Desert, ocean, mountain, forest, all are “the absence of a city” but they are not “countryside.” Hope that helps.
Cold does exist as a concept. Cold things have a lack of heat. Physics nerds still talk about “supercooled” things. So despite what science teachers tell you at school, scientists aren’t pedantic weirdos who deny the existence of cold as a real life concept.
Cold doesn’t exist per se, but only in the same way you could say that poor doesn’t exist.
But obviously poor does exist. Most of the world is desperately poor. It’s just that there is no physical thing called poor, poor is a lack of riches.
Heat is energy, cold is a lack of energy. But it’s still perfectly OK to say “close the window, you’re letting the cold air in.” You don’t have to worry about the physics nerds telling you off, because you’re dealing with real life.
It’s always a little disappointing when you come across a definition of something in terms of what it’s not, but sometimes it’s appropriate. Saying that cold is the absence of heat doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as cold; it just means that cold is what you get when you don’t have heat. We can conceptualize dark as a thing even if we know it’s the absence of light.
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