To consider absolute zero, let’s mention an ideal gas. If you’ve ever taken chemistry, you’ve probably heard of something called an ideal gas. An ideal gas is a simplified model to describe how gas molecules act. It treats them as essentially like billiard balls. So if you’ve played pool (or taken physics) you’ve got a handle on that. (BS Alert: they’re like billiard balls with zero size. But we digress …)
The equation you derive for this is PV=nRT, which kind of shows you that “pressure and temperature of an ideal gas are proportional to each other.” If T goes up, P goes up. If you don’t like math or equations, you can still totally understand this:
- Temperature makes the balls move faster
- Pressure is cause by them hitting the walls of the box they’re in
So, totally non-math: if they go faster, they hit harder. Easy, right? If T goes up, P goes up.
Don’t do this, but if you throw an old canister in a fire it will explode. Because the billiard balls inside go so fast they blow the canister open. (And the billiard balls are the gas molecules, like air molecules.)
