Comment by Jabbles | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jabbles | Hacker News Reader

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That in itself wouldn't limit the temperature. The average speed of the particles could approach c and their average energy would continue increasing.

Molecules will break apart above a few thousand degrees. If you take a gas (say Helium) above a certain temperature (probably ~1e4 K) the collisions between the atoms will knock the electrons off and you'll be left with a plasma.

Confining a plasma could either be done with magnets (e.g. a fusion reactor), or with more plasma! (in the case of stars, where the gravity keeps itself from exploding).

Above 1e7 K you start to get fusion of Hydrogen, and I think above 1e11 K pretty much any nucleus will fuse/break down.

So it's difficult to say there's a maximum temperature, as it's quite hard to define.

What's your maximum temperature? About 41'C... above that and you'll die...

That last line worries me...I live in phoenix and most summer days are above 110' F...41'C is 105.8' F :/

Hopefully there is some clarification to explain how I won't die...

The GP means internal temperature. 41°C would be a ridiculously (fatally?) high fever.

BTW, as a teen I remember playing out in the sun at a good 52°C. Don't think I died :)

Your core temperature doesn't reach 110' F, that's how you don't die.

I've been in a dry sauna as the temperature gradually reached its max peak of 105 C. At that temperature, the trick is to not move so that there's a relatively static layer of air around you. You also have to breathe slowly so as not to burn your nostrils/throat. And you perspire like crazy and the evaporation of your perspiration cools your body. It's still crazy hot though and you can't last very long before having to exit.

Agree that it doesn't limit the temperature, although it makes the thermodynamics / statistical physics more complicated. You can certainly keep pumping more and more energy into the system even if the particles' mean velocity approaches c.

And yes, these are well above biologically-friendly temperatures. :)

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