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absolute zero
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
absolute zero
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All matter at temperatures above that of absolute zero emits infrared radiation.
▪ And those which are work only at temperatures close to absolute zero.
▪ Kobe Steel supplied the liquid-helium refrigerator for super-chilling the magnets close to absolute zero.
▪ Near absolute zero, however, molecules have much less thermal energy.
▪ On the absolute scale of temperature, 0 K is called absolute zero.
▪ The catch is that it operates only at temperatures just above absolute zero.
▪ This corresponds to a temperature of -273°C or 0 K. This is the temperature called absolute zero.
▪ We're at one millionth of a degree above absolute zero.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Absolute zero

Zero \Ze"ro\, n.; pl. Zerosor Zeroes. [F. z['e]ro, from Ar.

  1. (Arith.) A cipher; nothing; naught.

  2. The point from which the graduation of a scale, as of a thermometer, commences.

    Note: Zero in the Centigrade, or Celsius thermometer, and in the R['e]aumur thermometer, is at the point at which water congeals. The zero of the Fahrenheit thermometer is fixed at the point at which the mercury stands when immersed in a mixture of snow and common salt. In Wedgwood's pyrometer, the zero corresponds with 1077[deg] on the Fahrenheit scale. See Illust. of Thermometer.

  3. Fig.: The lowest point; the point of exhaustion; as, his patience had nearly reached zero.

    Absolute zero. See under Absolute.

    Zero method (Physics), a method of comparing, or measuring, forces, electric currents, etc., by so opposing them that the pointer of an indicating apparatus, or the needle of a galvanometer, remains at, or is brought to, zero, as contrasted with methods in which the deflection is observed directly; -- called also null method.

    Zero point, the point indicating zero, or the commencement of a scale or reckoning.

Absolute zero

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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
absolute zero

the idea dates back to 1702 and its general value was guessed to within a few degrees soon thereafter, but not precisely discovered until Lord Kelvin's work in 1848. It was known by many names, such as infinite cold, absolute cold, natural zero of temperature; the term absolute zero was among them by 1806.

Wiktionary
absolute zero

n. 1 (context physics English) The coldest possible temperature, zero on the Kelvin scale, or approximately −273.15 °C, −459.67 °F; total absence of heat; temperature at which motion of all molecules would cease. (First attested in the early 19th century.) 2 (context slang English) A person or thing of absolutely no consequence.

WordNet
absolute zero

n. (cryogenics) the lowest temperature theoretically attainable (at which the kinetic energy of atoms and molecules is minimal); 0 Kelvin or -273.15 Centigrade or -459.67 Fahrenheit

Wikipedia
Absolute zero

Absolute zero is the lower limit of the thermodynamic temperature scale, a state at which the enthalpy and entropy of a cooled ideal gas reaches its minimum value, taken as 0. The theoretical temperature is determined by extrapolating the ideal gas law; by international agreement, absolute zero is taken as −273.15° on the Celsius scale ( International System of Units), which equates to −459.67° on the Fahrenheit scale ( United States customary units or Imperial units). The corresponding Kelvin and Rankine temperature scales set their zero points at absolute zero by definition.

It is commonly thought of as the lowest temperature possible, but it is not the lowest enthalpy state possible, because all real substances begin to depart from the ideal gas when cooled as they approach the change of state to liquid, and then to solid; and the sum of the enthalpy of vaporization (gas to liquid) and enthalpy of fusion (liquid to solid) exceeds the ideal gas's change in enthalpy to absolute zero. In the quantum-mechanical description, matter (solid) at absolute zero is in its ground state, the point of lowest internal energy.

The laws of thermodynamics dictate that absolute zero cannot be reached using only thermodynamic means, as the temperature of the substance being cooled approaches the temperature of the cooling agent asymptotically. A system at absolute zero still possesses quantum mechanical zero-point energy, the energy of its ground state at absolute zero. The kinetic energy of the ground state cannot be removed.

Scientists have achieved temperatures close to absolute zero, where matter exhibits quantum effects such as superconductivity and superfluidity.

Absolute Zero (novel)

Absolute Zero is a 1978 children's novel by Helen Cresswell, the second book in the Bagthorpe Saga.

Absolute Zero (disambiguation)

Absolute zero is the temperature at which entropy reaches its minimum value.

Absolute Zero may also refer to:

  • Absolute Zero (novel), a 1978 children's novel by Helen Cresswell
  • Absolute Zero (video game), a 1995 computer game for MS-DOS and Macintosh
  • Absolute Zero (film), a 2006 American science fiction film
  • Absolute Zero, a 2000 compilation album released by UK record label Charrm
  • Absolute Zero, a 2013 album by Little Green Cars
  • "Gone Sovereign"/"Absolute Zero", a song by Stone Sour
Absolute Zero (video game)

Absolute Zero is a video game developed and published for DOS and Macintosh by Domark. In some areas, it was published by Spectrum Holobyte.

Absolute Zero (film)

Absolute Zero is a 2006 disaster film, directed by Robert Lee, and written by Sarah Watson. It stars Jeff Fahey and Erika Eleniak. The film is about polar shift, which brings a new ice age in Florida, and everywhere within 30 degrees north and south of the equator.

Usage examples of "absolute zero".

They vanish at once: liquid hydrogen, perhaps, to keep certain parts near absolute zero?

In this paper they made the remarkable prediction that radiation (in the form of photons) from the very hot early stages of the universe should still be around today, but with its temperature reduced to only a few degrees above absolute zero (–.

Illescue had still to raise his voice, but the temperature in the conference room seemed to hover within a degree or two of absolute zero Kelvin.

What we observe is a dense object several tens of thousands of kilometers in diameter, at just a couple of hundred degrees above absolute zero.

The steam, incredibly hot as it was, would strike metal that was at nearly absolute zero.

Heat, caused by compression and friction, warmed ice and rock that had slumbered near absolute zero since long before the first living thing had emerged from Earth’.

Mass migrated until, by the end of the process, a billion trillion years down the line, the star was a single crystal of iron crushed down into a sphere a few thousand kilometers in diameter, spinning slowly in a cold vacuum only trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.

The continued existence of a Bose-Einstein Condensate of the required magnitude, sentient or not, called for temperatures sustained within a few billionths of a degree of absolute zero.

Exposed only to that hushed nothingness, enclosed by the great ship and so kept within a few degrees of absolute zero, the bodies of the dead could lie undisturbed and uncorrupted by nothing more than whatever had killed them and by the effects of their slow or sudden freezing, for aeons.

A Lunar scientist named William Pierce tried to reduce the temperature of a small sample of copper atoms to absolute zero.

Our universe cannot contain something of infinite length and mass, nor could a particle at absolute zero remain fixed in our perceptions of space or time.

This is a furious, degenerate form of matter, occurring at temperatures near absolute zero.