Posted on 06/18/2025 12:46:24 PM PDT by Red Badger
University of Seville professor José María Martín-Olalla has published a new solution to a 120-year-old problem regarding matter states at absolute zero that disproves a previous solution offered by famed scientist Albert Einstein.
The controversy originally arose in 1905 when Walther Nernst proposed a new approach to the properties of matter as entropy causes them to approach absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius). Dubbed Nerst’s theorem, the concept argued that absolute zero must be inaccessible, or one could theoretically construct an engine that uses absolute zero as a coolant to convert all heat energy into work. This idea goes directly against the accepted thermodynamic idea of entropy increase.
After Nerst proposed his conceptual engine, Einstein responded, noting that the theoretical engine could not be built and therefore did not constitute a real violation of the second law of thermodynamics. By offering this rebuttal, Olalla says Einstein essentially “detached” Nerst from the second law altogether.
In a statement announcing his new approach, Olalla points to a fundamental flaw with the entire discussion. Specifically, he states that a core problem with thermodynamics is that people tend to think of temperature in terms of a “sensation” of hot or cold and not “the abstract concept of temperature as a physical quantity.”
“In the discussion between Nernst and Einstein, temperature was merely an empirical parameter: the absolute zero condition was represented by the condition that the pressure or volume of a gas became close to zero,” Olalla explained.
Instead, Olalla notes that the second law of thermodynamics offers scientists a “more concrete idea of the natural zero temperature.”
“The idea is not related to any sensation, but to that engine imagined by Nernst, but which has to be virtual,” the professor explains. “This radically changes the approach to the proof of the theorem”.
With this in mind, Olalla’s new Proof of the Nerst Theorem, published in the European Physical Journal Plus, highlights the two “nuances” left out by both Nerst and Einstein, which he says support the former and prove the latter wrong.
First, he says that the “formalism” of thermodynamics essentially requires the existence of Nerst’s theoretical engine. However, the described machine must also be virtual, does not consume any heat, does not produce any work, and does not question the second principle. Olalla says the “concatenation” of these two nuances “allows us to conclude that entropy exchanges tend to zero when the temperature tends to zero (which is Nernst’s theorem) and that absolute zero is inaccessible.”
Because the newly proposed solution, which says Nerst was correct and Einstein was wrong, employs an unconventional approach, it is still not generally accepted. Fortunately, Olalla says that publishing this article laying out his own solution is a “first step” toward his concept gaining wider support.
“The students on the thermodynamics course I teach were the first to learn about this demonstration. I hope that with this publication the demonstration will become better known, but I know that the academic world has a great deal of inertia.”
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Absolute Ping!...................
Marilyn would be sad.
One of my favs:
If it is zero degrees and it gets twice as cold, how cold is it?
PS
I don’t know.
This sounds like when I was working on my BS in CS, while Hollywood was making Star Trek The Next Generation. US CS students would argue about time travel paradoxes as though it was actually possible to travel in time and worth arguing about what would happen. LOL
Trust the science!
Until its proven wrong.
Hence the problem of inductive reasoning.....
If I’m proven wrong on something 120 years from now, I’m okay with that.
You know what they will call 2025 science in 2525?
A joke.
Another one I’ve thought about:
Is it possible to have a wind-chill factor below absolute zero?
If man is still alive.
But can someone explain what the application would be? 🤣
A crock of crap!
Einstein, given science at the time, was not “wrong”...
He just had a different opinion...
Everybody loves to claim Einstein was “wrong” about something...
He made many statements in the early 1900s that he later changed his mind on when new scientific techniques were developed...
He often recanted based on new info appearing...
Called a joke by Zager and Evans
> If it is zero degrees and it gets twice as cold… <
My understanding is that at absolute zero it cannot get any colder. Therefore, at that temperature getting twice as cold (or any amount colder) would not be possible.
Atoms and molecules are always in motion, although normally we don’t notice it. The lower the temperature, the less motion there is. At absolute zero theoretically all motion has stopped.
Since motion can no longer decrease, no further drop in temperature is possible.
🥶
There are probably some defects/shortcomings/caveats in my way of looking at it, but I can understand the point of the article in my way of looking at it.
So, at absolute zero, are electrons stationary in their nucleus orbiting?
Does that apply to photons or gravity or time or do those transcend thermodynamics? Inquiring minds want to know.
That's the way that I learned it. Impossible to achieve.
I’ll stick with Einstein.
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