According to Boyle’s law, and ideal gas contracts in volume in relation to lowering the temperature. Absolute zero is the coldest temperature that can be achieved, which would be calculated at -273.15C or -459.67F (Encyclopedia Brittanica, 2018). Nothing can be colder than this point. However, because the calculations involved in determining gas volume rely on temperatures higher than absolute zero (Adamson, 2012), the question remains as to what would happen to a gas at absolute zero. The problem is one of mathematics: absolute zero would be entered as a 0 in all calculations, meaning any multiplication factor using this value would also yield a 0. The implication is that at absolute zero temperature, the volume of a gas would similarly be zero, at which point it is non-existent. If an ideal gas is cooled to absolute zero, its volume would also be zero.
Although this seems a paradox, there is one fact that does not necessarily cause problems with this method of calculation: absolute zero as a temperature itself is non-existent, and cannot be replicated in experiments. Although nothing is colder than absolute zero, nothing can be as cold as absolute zero either. While it is true that the volume of a gas would be zero at absolute zero, because absolute zero is itself theoretical, this would not cause issues. The coldest temperature that exists in reality is not absolute zero, but some temperature that would have to be at least infinitesimally warmer than absolute zero (Adamson, 2012).
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"Ideal Gas Volume and Absolute Zero".
- Adamson, A. (2012). A textbook of physical chemistry. Elsevier.
- Encyclopedia Brittanica. (2018). Absolute Zero. Accessible online at http://www.britannica.com/science/absolute-zero
