absolute zero is the lowest possible
temperature in the universe
nothing gets colder than that
so
if the entire earth suddenly cooled down
to the most frigid temperature
for even five seconds
it would wreak a lot of havoc
just how cold is absolute zero
what would happen to your body at this
temperature
and
what's the coolest thing about it
this is what if and here's what would
happen if the earth dropped to absolute
zero for five seconds
temperature is how we measure kinetic
energy of the particles in any object
yeah it tells us how fast atoms
molecules and particles move
the hotter a gas liquid or solid gets
the faster the particles move and when
that movement slows down the colder that
substance becomes at the lowest
temperature possible or absolute zero
particles stop moving altogether
this is because at 0 kelvin or minus
273.15 degrees celsius
no heat energy remains
the coldest ground temperature ever on
earth 184
kelvin or minus 89.2 degrees celsius was
recorded in antarctica in 1983 but it
doesn't even come close to absolute zero
even the coldest known place in the
entire universe
the boomerang nebula 5 000 light years
away from earth
is just a tad warmer at 1 kelvin
so
are you ready for the coldest five
seconds ever
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at room temperature you know that
comfortable range of temperatures of
about 293 kelvin
the air molecules move at an average
speed of 1800 kilometers per hour
as the temperatures on earth suddenly
plummeted all those particles would slow
down
at 0.000
kelvin the atomic particles would be
moving at a speed of about
0.18 kilometers per hour
that's 1 000 times slower than their
speed at room temperature
getting this close to absolute zero all
chemical reactions would be closer and
closer to coming to a complete stop
and this would be very bad news for you
and everything else on earth
chemical reactions are responsible for
everything including how your brain
communicates with your body
without the trillions of chemical
reactions going on inside of you
you wouldn't be able to breathe or turn
food into fuel
temperatures near absolute zero would be
devastatingly cold
even at a comparatively toasty 77 kelvin
you'd be in serious trouble
that's the temperature of liquid
nitrogen
after just a few seconds of exposure to
this temperature you'd suffer severe
burns blistering and frostbite
needing a toe or ten amputated could be
a definite possibility
so
just five seconds of absolute zero could
do incredible amounts of damage to all
life forms on earth
but
i have good news
the chemical reactions wouldn't come to
a total standstill
even at the near absolute zero
temperature of the boomerang nebula
chemical reactions do still appear to
take place
this is thanks to the strange effects of
quantum physics
and whenever quantum physics is involved
things get weird
with all the atoms on earth at a near
standstill you'd find them starting to
clump together
they'd be forming a state of matter
known as a bose-einstein condensate
this would mean that every atom is in
the same energy state and essentially
identical to one another from a physical
point of view
they'd start to behave as a single atom
and if you could become a bose-einstein
condensate
it would be pretty cool pardon the pun
for those brief five seconds you'd have
some unique physical properties
like super fluidity
yeah you'd be able to flow through tiny
cracks without any friction
only there wouldn't be any cracks
because
you wouldn't be the only super fluid
thing on the planet
but there is a catch
bose-einstein condensates can only be
formed when bosuns are cooled to near
absolute zero
bosons are all atoms with an even number
of electrons
that means only some of the atoms in
your body and the environment around you
could become a bose-einstein condensate
and lucky for you reaching a temperature
of absolute zero wouldn't be possible
if earth and everything on it plummeted
to absolute zero
it would instantly pull the heat from
the space around it
to keep you and the planet at zero
degrees kelvin even for five seconds
you'd need an infinite amount of
resources
this makes it mathematically impossible
but that wouldn't mean that five seconds
of near absolute zero temperatures
wouldn't destroy just about everything
and nothing would ever come back
together from this soup of atoms that
you and the entire planet would turn
into
maybe you'd be better off seeing what
would happen if the earth simply froze
overnight
well that sounds like a day at the beach
after all this absolute zero talk
and of course
that's a story
for another
what if
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