There's no such thing as 'absolute zero',
it's just made up.
A theoretical absurdity.
The laws of thermodynamics, which propose its existence, also declare that "it is impossible to reach absolute zero in any finite number of steps"
Which means you can only reach it in an infinite number of steps...
Which means you can't reach it :-)

If this all sounds like an hilarious joke out of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this is merely an added bonus :0)

Were we told this in lectures?

*frantically looks through notes

I lecturer from the PCL did tell us (and I quote)...

"THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS:
1. You can't get something for nothing
2. You can only even break even at absolute zero
3. But you can never actually reach absolute zero"

:lol:

Humph :(
We had more mathematical definitions of thermodynamics.
First lectures ever in the PTCL (Ignoring the 1 introduction from Prof. Hore)

Did you get Atkins?
In 3 years here, I've NEVER had Atkins.
The year below us have had his for 3 (yes, THREE) different lecture courses.

*storms off and does some more revision

Yeah, I had thermodynamics with him
he was always blabbering on about his "Golden Rectangle" that he'd drawn on the board.
Actually I remember almost falling asleep several times (in the University Museum lecture theatre, where the dinosaurs live)

Still bought his textbook, though.....

He gave a mini-lecture at my school once (my science teacher pestered him enough to make him come for Master Class week), and I pointed out a mathematical error he had made on the board 8)

I purchased his book (7th Ed)
You have little choice, considering all the lecturers use it practically as the syllabus.

I had Manaolopodousososos for TD
He was rather good.
We wrote everything down for several weeks, then at the end of the course, he gave us a 'scary handout' which had it all in :lol:

So basically you can't get something for nothing lol.

I'm doing an extra credit project for my 11th Grade chemistry class and i really need any information from believers of the theory of absolute zero. Did Einstein think it was possible? Stuff like that.
:!: PLEASE :!:

Absolute zero is the thermodynamic termperature of zero kelvin (0K, not to be confused with OK ;-)

Since "temperature" is basically just molecules moving (having kinetic energy), at 0K they would have no vibrational, rotational or translational movement whatsever - they'd be completely still.
They would probably also have zero entropy as well (ie be laid out in a completely ordered and regular solid crystal structure - which NEVER happens in reality - all those nice NaCl lattices you see in text books are an idealised fantasy - any real crystal is full of defects, and these are one of the most important things in giving it its properties!)

One simple reason why you could never cool something down to 0K is that there'd always been something slightly warmer next to it and so the heat would just flow in and warm it up again.

You might want to look up some of the clever ways they use to cool things down to 0.000 000 000 1 kelvin and so forth - various magnetic techniques etc etc (basically they get little ions or molecules to sit still in a magnetic field, more or less.)

Personally I think it's a crazy dangerous idea to try and reach absolute zero anyway - I bet if you did it, there's be a big cracking noise and big hole would fall out of space-time there, and you'd see a bluescreen CSO background behind it and all this air would start howling into it like when the door opens in a spaceship. If you peeked through you'd probably see god on the other side, shouting and swearing at you and running round trying to find some duct tape to fix it. :lol:

And, don't forget, you'd see Atkins quickly publishing a new edition of his book :lol: