A Sense of Scale
At roughly minus 460 F, absolute
zero is abysmally cold, yet at least we can imagine it. Being only a few
hundred degrees below zero, it's in the realm of something we can put our
minds around. This is not true of the opposite of absolute zero, the
theoretical highest possible temperature. In conventional physics, this is
approximately 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 degrees. In this
interactive, get a taste of temperatures from absolute zero to absolute hot,
and see why, for instance, even the core of the sun is relatively
"chilly" compared to what many physicists believe the temperature
of the universe was an instant after the Big Bang.—Glenn Elert
Launch interactive
Ms. Berenbaum on 20 Mar 11Learn how to build an igloo, and watch a video about Igloo Ed's experiences building and sleeping in his own igloo.
