Talk:Absolute zero

Absolute zero was nominated as a Natural sciences good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (December 4, 2022, reviewed version). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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'Lowest theoretically possible temperature'?

Perhaps a physicist can explain to me why this wording is fine (since it appears so often) but isn't the word 'possible' misleading in this context? The article opens that absolute zero is a 'theoretically possible temperature' then goes onto say that absolute zero can't be reached. To the layman, this seems contradictory. MrBoy632 (talk) 11:03, 22 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Some theories can be formulated without problems at 0 K, that is, assuming no thermal excitations. In that sense, 0 K is at least describable in theory, while it is meaningless to discuss temperatures lower than 0 K. We could also adopt another wording if someone comes up with a natural sounding phrase. Jähmefyysikko (talk) 13:44, 22 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

What about "theoretically lowest temperature"? It is shorter and doesn't have the problem of what is "possible" - 0 K really is the lowest temperature in the theory. Mathnerd314159 (talk) 00:25, 29 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I would somewhat prefer "coldest" to "lowest", because negative temperature is a thing in some context, but these are not colder than absolute zero. --Trovatore (talk) 06:24, 29 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, I'm calling this

Done. Mathnerd314159 (talk) 14:48, 2 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]