What is "absolute temperature"

Temperature \Tem"per*a*ture\, n. [F. temp['e]rature, L. temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.]

1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality.

   The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign, if there be no remedy.
   --Bacon.

   Memory depends upon the consistence and the temperature of the brain.
   --I. Watts.

2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [Obs.]

   In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth, Most goodly temperature you may descry.
   --Spenser.

3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold, especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as, the temperature of the air; high temperature; low temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling.

   Note: The temperature of a liquid or a solid body as measured by a thermometer is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the consituent atoms or molecules of the body. For other states of matter such as plasma, electromagnetic radiation, or subatomic particles, an analogous measure of the average kinetic energy may be expressed as a temperature, although it could never be measured by a traditional thermometer, let alone by sensing with the skin.

4. Mixture; compound. [Obs.]

   Made a temperature of brass and iron together.
   --Holland.

5. (Physiol. & Med.) The degree of heat of the body of a living being, esp. of the human body; also (Colloq.), loosely, the excess of this over the normal (of the human body 98[deg]-99.5[deg] F., in the mouth of an adult about 98.4[deg]).

   Absolute temperature. (Physics) See under Absolute.

   Animal temperature (Physiol.), the nearly constant temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during respiration. See Homoiothermal.

   Temperature sense (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of temperature in external objects.
   --H. N. Martin.

Absolute \Ab"so*lute\, a. [L. absolutus, p. p. of absolvere: cf. F. absolu. See Absolve.]

1. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.

2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty.

   So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.
   --Milton.

3. Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to relative and comparative; as, absolute motion; absolute time or space.

   Note: Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man in a state of nature as contradistinguished from relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him in his social relations.

4. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.

   Note: In this sense God is called the Absolute by the Theist. The term is also applied by the Pantheist to the universe, or the total of all existence, as only capable of relations in its parts to each other and to the whole, and as dependent for its existence and its phenomena on its mutually depending forces and their laws.

5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.

   Note: It is in dispute among philosopher whether the term, in this sense, is not applied to a mere logical fiction or abstraction, or whether the absolute, as thus defined, can be known, as a reality, by the human intellect.

   To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.
   --Sir W. Hamilton.

6. Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. [R.]

   I am absolute 't was very Cloten.
   --Shak.

7. Authoritative; peremptory. [R.]

   The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
   --Mrs. Browning.

8. (Chem.) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.

9. (Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative.

   Absolute curvature (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve.

   Absolute equation (Astron.), the sum of the optic and eccentric equations.

   Absolute space (Physics), space considered without relation to material limits or objects.

   Absolute terms. (Alg.), such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity.
   --Davies & Peck.

   Absolute temperature (Physics), the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.

   Absolute zero (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273[deg] centigrade or -459.4[deg] Fahrenheit.

   Syn: Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited; unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic; autocratic.

alt. thermodynamic temperature; measuring of cold and heat on the absolute scale and using Kelvins.(R:OCD2: page=5) n. thermodynamic temperature; measuring of cold and heat on the absolute scale and using Kelvins.(R:OCD2: page=5)

n. temperature measured on the absolute scale