How Cold?
With great reservation, in anticipation, of an onslaught of crazy, wild speculation, tempered with some intelligent questions, I pose the following:
In your opinion, what temperature, in Farenheit, would be twice as cold as 0 degrees Farenheit?
(Look out, take cover, duck, and any other means by which to protect yourself ... heh heh!)
In your opinion, what temperature, in Farenheit, would be twice as cold as 0 degrees Farenheit?
posted by Zaux at
10:29 AM
10 Comments:
We have to have a reference point. I submit that a logical reference point is the temperature at which I personally feel comfortable, which is 68 degrees F. Therefore "twice as cold" would be -68 degrees F.
I then think that answer is crazy. -68 F feels much much more than twice as cold as zero F.
It's a difficult situation ... I do have an answer which I feel is pretty logical ... I will share it after everyone has a chance to chime in.
I would say zero but thats just the math talking im in fl if it ever got that low here i would move to eqypt
If your point of reference is absolute zero, -459.67F
twice as cold would be -229.835F
always assuming "twice as cold" = "half as hot"
regards, Curtis
Since Temperature is a measurement of HEAT, the real question is "half as hot".
ergo....
K=(°F-32/1.8)+273
=(0-32/1.8)+273
=290.78 K
Half of that = 145.39 K
Convert back to °F
°F=(K * 9/5)-459.67
=(145.39 * 9/5)-459.67
= 261.7-459.67
= -197.97 °F
hi Curtis ... good thinking ... you have the same solution I have
To say something is twice something else, you need a starting point to measure from. Temperature has several arbitrary "starting" points.
I heard a weather man say that it was twice as cold this morning as yesterday. Almost everyone then knew if was 10 degrees since it was 20 yesterday. I disagreed and thought absolute zero, would probably be a good candidate.
I agree with Curtis.
Temperature is most definitely not a measurement of heat. There is more than one misconception here. Heat is often erroneously used instead of thermal energy (measured in Joules). Heat (or heating) is akin to work, it is a process. You "heat" things, you don't "temperature" them. A thing may have a temeperature, but not a heat. They have different units in the SI system, because they are fundamentally different [concepts].
The statistical mechanics interpretation is that temperature is a measure of the average [thermal] energy per degree of freedom of a particle; the constant of proportionality being half of Boltzmann's constant.
You could have a large but cool body containing much more thermal energy (e.g. an ice cube) than a small but very hot body (e.g. a spark).
.. and I agree with Ragknot.
If the question had been what temperature would "feel" twice as cold, then I'd agree with Ross's answer. But I also sympathise with his statement about that being crazy. I think that absolute zero would be more like infinitely cold.
-32°F
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