How hot is really hot- Feel the heat!

Nov 7, 2016 | Science

Temperature is defined as the degree of heat present in an object. Measured by a thermometer, there are various objective scales for measuring temperature such as the Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin scale. However, how hot or cold an object feels is quite relative. For example, ice feels cold and boiling water feels hot. Yet, the boiling water is about 10 times ‘cooler’ than lava from a volcano and about 270 times ‘cooler’ than a lightning bolt. We all know that -2730  Celsius is called absolute zero or the lowest temperature that is theoretically possible. But what about hotness- how hot is really hot? Is there an absolute maximum temperature and what’s the maximum temperature that we’ve been able to record or create? In this article, we look at the heat scale, how progressively hot things get & the hottest temperature possible in our world and universe.

If you’ve been to a “hot” place or experienced “high” temperatures during summers, you’ve most certainly felt your “eyes burn”. Or, if you’ve spilled hot coffee on yourself, you’ve probably experienced burns and blisters. The difference between the two is about 500 Celsius and yet, we use the words – “hot”, “burning”, “scorching” or “blistering” in both cases! Furthermore, they are not even a fraction of how hot you can experience on Earth itself, leave aside the rest of the Universe. In a controlled nuclear fusion, the temperature can be a million times that of a hot coffee and even then, that’s about 50000 times cooler than the maximum temperature created by mankind!

Find it hard to believe? Scroll down below to see how hot things can get around us and in our universe.

Hottest Temperature Possible- How hot can it get!

Range: 00C to 820C

 

Hot things

Range: 2300C to 10270C

 

How hot is hot

Range: 14000C to 60000C

 

How hot can it get

Range: 270000C to 1 billion0C

 

temperature of lightning bolt & sun's core

Range: 100 billion0C to 5.5 trillion0C

Hottest man-made temperature

Hottest Temperature Possible: Planck’s Temperature

 

Hottest temperature possible

Temperatures in degree Celsius

Freezing/Melting point of water (at Standard Temperature and Pressure)

Mean temperature on Earth

Average body temperature for a human

Hottest official air temperature on Earth (at Death Valley, California)

Hot coffee

Boiling point of water at sea level

Hot oven

Surface temperature of Venus

Melting point of aluminium (used in foils to wrap food)

Lava flows and open flames

Blue candle flame

Diamond melting point (at 63.5 atm)

Earth’s inner core (slightly hotter than the surface of Sun)

Lightning bolts (Yes, they are hotter than Sun’s surface!)

Temperature at Sun’s core

Controlled nuclear fusion

Temperature when the universe was just 100 seconds old

Supernova resulting in the formation of a neutron star

Hottest man-made temperature in thermal equilibrium (at LHC, Switzerland)

Estimated temperature of the Universe at 10-43-10-44 seconds old. Also called Planck’s Temperature