What is absolute zero?
Perhaps the biggest geek / amateur reference to absolute zero refers to a famous anime scene. This is the moment when the Hyoga Knight of the Zodiac, in a desperate battle against the golden knight Kamus of Aquarius, manages to overcome the morbid love for his deceased mother (able to contain his powers according to "theory"). and shoot a firework “Execution Aurora!”.
Behind the tears, the freezing lightning, and the sweeping scenes, the explanation was: to unleash the terrible blow - a kind of destructive overestimation of the powers associated with the manipulation of thermal energy - Hyoga must reach the dreaded absolute zero. But what does it really mean? What's more, is this "zero" really that "absolute"?
"Zeroing" Entropy
Although the concept of “a body that is by its very nature so cold that in its company all other bodies acquire such quality” had been around among naturalists for much longer, it was in 1665 that Robert Boyle presented his work “New Experiments and Observation touching Cold ”, leading to the dispute called“ primum frigidum ”.
Further, according to classical thermodynamic theory, absolute zero is obtained when all thermal and kinetic energy is zero. It is also possible to see this as a point where entropy reaches its minimum value - a quantity that is used to measure the irreversibility of a system, relating to work and heat.
Basically, the laws of entropy say that all work (physical greatness) can be fully converted into heat (just think of a melting ice cube). However, heat can never be fully converted into work. Thus, the entire organization of the universe tends toward this point of irreversibility — which anchors the supposed “finitude” of the universe (at least in the known pattern) theorized by some scientists.
But could absolute zero stop this process? According to classical theory, yes. After all, eliminating molecular motions entirely would mean that no more work could be done and thus turned into heat.
Conventionally, absolute zero is defined as 0 K on the Kelvin scale - equivalent to -273.15 ° C. But this conjecture, related to an insurmountable state, has been seriously threatened (not to say totally toppled) by a relatively recent coup.
The quantum blow
As you may have read here in Megacurioso, science has recently taken one of those leaps that leave behind many yellow smiles - including ourselves, it's true. Those responsible for the “embarrassment” were scientists from Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany who were able to create a gas that not only reached the ideal of absolute zero but surpassed it!
It's okay that, in layman's terms, it wasn't a big overrun there - it's just a few billionths of degrees below -273.15 ° C. But, of course, the quantum gas with potassium atoms was enough that the thermodynamic ideal could be disregarded - leading to further considerations about the very nature of the universe.
Anyway, a nice blow to learning Hyoga. Wait now for a version 2.0 of “Aurora Execution!” - one that will be even colder, perhaps using some explanation of quantum physics, who knows? Of course, the knight would need an even more advanced tutor for this. Maybe it was also necessary to have another relative to be able to "disconnect affectively" ... Anyway, better to let it go.
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