buff-equations t1_j68u129 wrote
Reply to comment by Yaver_Mbizi in In the absence of cosmic radiation, would an object placed in space eventually cool to absolute zero? by IHatrMakingUsernames
Sounds like how a lot of computer counters work. -1? Nah that’s just 2 billion
Chemomechanics t1_j69zwi7 wrote
As a side point, it's not. Such counters click down from 0 to the maximum count since they can't represent a negative. Temperature is different—arguably, the more fundamental parameter is the reciprocal 1/T, which is positive in most familiar systems but can in some circumstances swing below zero. This implies (very weirdly) that the temperature shoots up to ∞ and then to -∞. Again, it takes special effort to construct such a system; it won't occur around the house.
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