Absolute Zero

Absolute Zero

The theoretical temperature at which molecular motion vanishes and a body would have no heat energy; the zero point of the Kelvin and Rankine temperature scales.

Absolute zero may be interpreted as the temperature at which the volume of a perfect gas vanishes or, more generally, as the temperature of the cold source which would render a Carnot cycle 100 percent efficient. The value of absolute zero is now estimated to be - 273.15° Celsius, -459.67° Fahrenheit, 0° Kelvin, and 0° Rankine.

References

This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use