If absolute zero is when no more heat can possibly be removed from an object, and the particles are at a complete standstill, what is the contrary to it?
In: Physics
There is no “opposite.” There is **only** heat. Heat is the kinetic energy of molecules. “Cold” doesn’t exist except as an abstract concept. We say something is “cold” when it doesn’t have *as much heat* as something else. “Absolute zero” is when the molecules in a thing have no kinetic energy at all.
Put another way, that’s like asking, “What’s the opposite of having no bananas?” Well, the opposite of having zero bananas is having infinite bananas. But there is no such thing as “infinite” mathematically. “Infinite” really just means undefinable.
But I suppose that since heat is defined as the random molecular kinetic energy of molecules, it would be possible to apply enough energy to accelerate molecules until they themselves become energy, at which point we’re back to technically having no heat since there would no longer be molecules.
Here is a good video that has an interesting take on [Absolute Hot](https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=absolute+hot)
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As the name implies, absolute hot is the opposite of absolute zero. Absolute zero makes sense because it just involves removing an object’s heat energy until it has none left. The idea of absolute hot, therefore, is that there may be an upper limit to how much heat energy you can put into an object.
Currently, we don’t know for sure what temperature an object at absolute hot would be, or if there really even is such a thing as absolute hot. We are currently pretty sure that matter can’t become hotter than roughly 10^(32) Kelvin. According to string theory, there may be an even lower limit at 10^(30) Kelvin.
Light is made of photons that are pure energy and when those photons hit something, heat may be generated. These photons have a wavelength. As the energy of the photon goes up, the wavelength of the photon gets shorter and shorter and the energy transferred in the form of heat higher and higher. Eventually, at around 142 Nonillion degrees *Celsius*, the wavelength is so short that it reaches the plank length, the shortest possible distance of known physics.
The energy of these photons are so high, that if it was converted directly to mass (E=mc^2 ) then it would create a black hole. After this point, if it is possible to increase the energy of the photon even further, no one knows what would happen as all the known laws of physics break down. So, they just call that point the “Absolute Hot” as that much energy would have to be put into a photon to theoretically create that much heat from it.
Edit: degrees Celsius
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