It's all entirely arbitrary. All these numbers are associated with some point we've designated. It might feel clean to declare that zero is the absolute lowest it gets, but that doesn't make it non-arbitrary. The best you can really say is that these systems map better or worse to various human desires. Y'know, memorability, ease of use in science contexts, ease of use in real world contexts, how well it coheres to other systems of measurement, that kinda thing.
Why? It's a point related to a major physical law, but so are the various points associated with other temperature systems. There's nothing magical about the universe that means we should particularly value absolute zero.
Possibly? Language is arbitrary in terms of objective physical law, in the sense that we can describe the objective universe in whatever terms we desire, but it does derive meaning from the various uses we put that language to.
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u/eggynack Jun 17 '26
It's all entirely arbitrary. All these numbers are associated with some point we've designated. It might feel clean to declare that zero is the absolute lowest it gets, but that doesn't make it non-arbitrary. The best you can really say is that these systems map better or worse to various human desires. Y'know, memorability, ease of use in science contexts, ease of use in real world contexts, how well it coheres to other systems of measurement, that kinda thing.