I don’t understand how atoms that are in the “negative tempretures” have 0 entropy while being insanely hot. I also dont get how negative temperatures are hotter than infinity if (planck’s temperature forbids this; dont really know if it does). Please explain!
In: Physics
Quantum thermodynamics isn’t macro physics as you interact with temperature in your kitchen. In macro physics, 0˚K is “absolute zero”, where there is no heat. You can’t get a block of metal to 0˚K, even in a lab, though you can get very close.
In exploring why you can’t get to 0˚K, scientists have determined that the macro physics of temperature isn’t right. Alas, this has happened before when they determined that the macro physics of motion isn’t right either. Macro physics is right enough for almost everything you do, like cook or drive a car, but it’s not right enough for everything.
Quantum physics of temperature, like quantum physics of mechanics, is quite counter-intuitive, it just seems wrong. However, quantum mechanics has been proven accurate in many scientific experiments. It is our best understanding of the world of the small, though there are still issues and 100 years from now some redditor may be making the same statement about it in favor of a proven string theory.
Quantum thermodynamics has a notion of negative temperature, and heat flows from an object with negative temperature to an object with positive temperature – the macro thermodynamics definition of “hot”. However, you can’t mix macro thermodynamics and quantum thermodynamics, that’s the whole point of quantum thermodynamics.
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