Background on Absolute Zero

Absolute zero is the theoretical lowest temperature there can ever be. All molecules and motion cease at this instant. This is all theoretical, because this would violate the laws of thermodynamics.

Some important concepts must be understood before analyzing the theory of absolute zero. All molecules have internal energy, which consists of potential energy and kinetic energy. Another important concept is the idea of heat transfer. Heat transfer comes from the idea of thermal equilibrium, in which heat, or energy, will flow from hotter to object to the cooler object, to come to a thermal equilibrium temperature of T.

As objects increase in temperature, the particles of that object will increase in motion and collisions with one another. The vice versa is also true; the colder an object is, the particles of that object will be more stationary compared to a hotter object. This is also true for particles approaching absolute zero. Most of the energy of particles approaching absolute zero is in the form of translational motion. The temperature can be measured from this motion, and from this we receive the notion of colder particles resembling slower motion of the particles.

A temperature scale has been scaled to absolute zero. This temperature scale is in the units of kelvins, where a kelvin is defined to be 1/273.16 of the differnece between absolute zero and the temperature of the triple point of water.

This graph depicts temperatures of the three temperature scales at specific points.

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/012992.html

Some temperatures of common fluids and surfaces in our universe our shown above in kelvins.

http://www.sun.rhbnc.ac.uk/~uhap057/LTWeb/Zero_Box2.html