- Planck temperature
The Planck temperature, named after German
physicist Max Planck , is the unit oftemperature , denoted by TP, in the system ofnatural units known asPlanck units . It is one of the Planck units that represent a fundamental limit ofquantum mechanics . The Planck temperature is a temperature approaching which modern science is unable to make predictions due to a lack of a general theory ofquantum gravity . [Nova: " [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html ABSOLUTE HOT] "] It is the temperature of the Universe during the first instant (the first unit ofPlanck time ) of theBig Bang according to currentcosmology .T_P = frac{m_P c^2}{k} = sqrt{frac{hbar c^5}{G k^2 =
1.41679(11) × 1032 Kwhere:
"m"P is the
Planck mass "c" is the
speed of light in a vacuumhbar is the reduced
Planck constant (orDirac's constant ), which can be found by hbar = frac{h}{2pi}"k" is the
Boltzmann constant "G" is the
gravitational constant The two digits between the parentheses denote the uncertainty (
standard deviation ) in the last two digits of the value.See also
*
Orders of magnitude (temperature)
*Planck's constant
*Planck unit sExternal links
* [http://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?plktmp NIST reference: Planck temperature]
* [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_347.html What is the opposite of absolute zero?]Notes
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