# The opposite of "Absolute Zero" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229 "2005-01-23T07:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CrazyFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@CrazyFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyFoo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/1 "2005-01-23T07:11:37Z")
Since “Absolute Zero” is the lowest possible temperature (-273.15 degrees Celsius), is there a theoretical absolute high temperature? Would it be the temps at the core of our sun? Is there a ceiling on how hot it could get? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/2 "2005-01-23T07:13:33Z")
10[sup]-34[/sup] seconds after the big bang, the temperature of our universe was as hot as it’s ever been since. That seems like a good estimate to me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/3 "2005-01-23T07:20:08Z")
Absolute zero (which doesn’t actually exist anywhere) is the point where all molecular motion stops. So maybe an absolute peak would be where it reaches light speed? [Here’s once source that says there’s no upper temperature limit.](http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00027.htm) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/4 "2005-01-23T14:43:14Z")
Go to your library and find a copy of the book _On Physics_ by Isaac Asimov. In the essay _The Height of Up_ he discusses whether or not there is a highest possible temperature and concludes that there is not. Unfortunately, in a footnote at the very end he throws in a hooker and leaves the question hanging. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/5 "2005-01-23T16:17:38Z")
[The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_347.html), pointing out that the Planck temperature (10[sup]32[/sup] K) may be a maximum in quantum gravity. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/6 "2005-01-23T19:16:26Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Go to your library and find a copy of the book _On Physics_ by Isaac Asimov. In the essay _The Height of Up_ he discusses whether or not there is a highest possible temperature and concludes that there is not. Unfortunately, in a footnote at the very end he throws in a hooker and leaves the question hanging. However, in a later column, Asimov reported that a physicist read the original article and did a calculation along the lines Asimov proposed, and called it the Asimov Temperature. I don’t know if anything ever came of that, however. ---
**Author:** ![BlueMit11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@BlueMit11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMit11)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/7 "2005-01-23T20:43:04Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Unfortunately, in a footnote at the very end he throws in a hooker and leaves the question hanging. Yes, I imagine she’d distract him so much that he couldn’t finish answering it sufficiently. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/8 "2005-01-23T20:50:00Z")
What if you had a situation where all matter has been converted into energy? At that point could there even be said to be a meaningful temperature when there is nothing for it to affect? ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/9 "2005-01-23T21:12:39Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > What if you had a situation where all matter has been converted into energy? At that point could there even be said to be a meaningful temperature when there is nothing for it to affect? Temperature is a property of matter, without matter there is no temperature. And if you could covert all matter bar a tiny little bit into energy, contained in the last little bit, it’d probably resemble the beginning of the big bang. But that’s just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/10 "2005-01-23T21:20:43Z")
Some like it hot, but you don’t know how hot 'till you try ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/11 "2005-01-23T22:04:36Z")
> [@](#): > > What if you had a situation where all matter has been converted into energy? Already pointed out… the exact instant immediately after the Big Bang. The only real temperature limitation is the fact that there’s a finite amount of energy in the universe. Maybe the OP wants to know what the hottest _an object_, such as a star or quasar, can be? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/12 "2005-01-23T22:11:32Z")
😃 **July/August in Mississippi.** [sub] **Good to see Isaac Asimov cited. He taught me everything I know about science.** [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/13 "2005-01-23T23:53:11Z")
> [@BlueMit11](#): > > Yes, I imagine she’d distract him so much that he couldn’t finish answering it sufficiently. Nah. Aplomb was old Isaac’s middle name. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > [@David Simmons](#): > > > > Go to your library and find a copy of the book On Physics by Isaac Asimov. In the essay The Height of Up he discusses whether or not there is a highest possible temperature and concludes that there is not. Unfortunately, in a footnote at the very end he throws in a hooker and leaves the question hanging. > > However, in a later column, Asimov reported that a physicist read the original article and did a calculation along the lines Asimov proposed, and called it the Asimov Temperature. I don’t know if anything ever came of that, however. The footnote in question read: “This chapter first appeared in October 1959. It is pure ivory tower speculation, but it got a reader to thinking. The reader was Hong Yee Chiu, a theoretical physicist who grew curious as to what the highest _real_ temperature might be. This led him to calculations of nuclear reactions in the center of stars, to suggestions as to the cause of star implosions and super-novae, to the role played by neutrino formation in the process, and, in general, to the founding of ‘neutrino astronomy.’ (If I can’t do great things myself, I like to contribute to the doing of them by others.)” But Isaac never told us the result of Chiu’s calculation of the “highest _real_ temperature.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-opposite-of-absolute-zero/286229/14 "2005-01-24T00:12:03Z")
> [@Andy](#): > > And if you could covert all matter bar a tiny little bit into energy, contained in the last little bit, it’d probably resemble the beginning of the big bang… But it’s a _dry_ heat.