Absolute zero should be impossible

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 2K views
coach950
So since heat comes from atoms vibrating and moving and as they go fast heat increases and when they go slower heat decreases. If I got this right absolute zero is when they give off no heat and this would mean that the atoms are not moving at all. Well then if that is how absolute zero works then it is impossible due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We could measure where they were and since they weren't moving we would know there momentum would be zero. So basically what I'm asking is that if Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is true then is absolute zero even possible.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
coach950 said:
So since heat comes from atoms vibrating and moving and as they go fast heat increases and when they go slower heat decreases. If I got this right absolute zero is when they give off no heat and this would mean that the atoms are not moving at all. Well then if that is how absolute zero works then it is impossible due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We could measure where they were and since they weren't moving we would know there momentum would be zero. So basically what I'm asking is that if Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is true then is absolute zero even possible.

Read this article and tell us what you think:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero
 
Absolute zero does not correspond to a system with zero motion. A system at absolute zero should be defined to be in its quantum mechanical ground state. While defining "motion" in quantum mechanics is a little different than classical physics, a system like a Fermi gas with a macroscopic number of particles at zero temperature will have many particles with a "velocity" [itex]p/m[/itex] on the order of [itex]10^6 m/s[/itex], even though it is a zero entropy state. Heisenberg uncertainty is unrelated to uncertainties due to thermal effects.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: atyy