Into the Impossible With Brian Keating - The Scientists: Lord Kelvin’s Dangerous Idea (Absolute Zero)

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Starting point is 00:01:11 The first that we'll come across is William Thompson. You know him as Lord Kelvin of the Kelvin Thermometry Scale, the Kelvin Temperature Scale. He coined the term Absolute Zero. He worked on international communications. Kelvin was appointed a philosophy professor, which is a physics professor, just like James Clerk Maxwell, at the tender age of just 22 years old. He worked on thermodynamics, electromagnetism, many inventions that we take for granted to this day, but none are as synonymous as his name, the Kelvin scale. Today, I'd like to think about talking to him about the cosmic microwave background, which is not only the most perfect black body known in the. known universe, but it's also the lowest temperature found in the natural universe.

Starting point is 00:02:07 We can cool things much colder in my laboratory down to 50 millie Kelvin or even below, but to get to 3 degrees Kelvin is provided by the universe itself, the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is what I study, of course. So the University of Glasgow motto is world changers welcome. they pioneered a great deal of some of the top science and engineering in the world. Kelvin also studied telegraphy, which is the communications art,

Starting point is 00:02:44 using a cable across the Atlanta. He built on the work of his fellow Glaswegian, James Watt, who wasn't born here, but lived in the early to middle of the 18th century. Watt, we now recognize for his work on steam engines, and even the unit of power, is named after him.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Watt is the unit of electric power, you ask? Good question. It's the Watt. The Watt named after James Watt, recognized for his titanic contributions to the science of thermodynamics. Why is the Kelvin scale called Kelvin? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Here in the campus, the University of Glasgow, they pay homage to the great Lord Kelvin. Now why is he called Kelvin? Because the river here, which we'll show you in just a moment, is the Kelvin River. So Lord Thompson, William Lord Thompson, lived here and is synonymous with this city. Inextricably linked to the success and notoriety of this amazing and vibrant city. We'll see the Kelvin River in just a moment, which is where we get the name for absolute zero temperature skills. Knighted in 1866, Lord Kelvin's fame is intimately related to this incredible city. He was born here in Glasgow, but he died and was buried to Westminster Abbey.

Starting point is 00:04:21 Fittingly, his tomb is located next to the great physicist Isaac Newton. We're coming up on the Kelvin building at the University of Glasgow. We're going to the Kelvin building, the University of Glasgow. This is not only synonymous with Lord Kelvin, but sign right there. sign right there. We'll see the lecture theater where he once delivered fascinating lectures, including the concept of absolute zero, all named right here. Liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen. Lord Kelvin will be fascinated by this. It stands out of frosty 7 to 77 Kelvin, a mere 77 degrees above absolute zero. Now Kelvin and centigrade are essentially the same thing.

Starting point is 00:05:24 They have different zero points. The zero point of Kelvin equates to minus 273 degrees Celsius. Kelvin building. Nowadays the site of some of the most advanced science and engineering imaginable, completely inconceivable to Lord Kelvin. There's nanocar characterization, gravitational research, and of course astronomy, where they study the three degree Kelvin cosmic microwave background radiation. Now we come upon this strange symbol here, the auroboros. What is it doing here? A mythological serpent that's eating its tail. And he's Here, it surrounds a triangle, which itself surrounds an a six-pointed star. What do these all have to do with each other?

Starting point is 00:06:12 Well, allegedly, according to local legend, the symbol combined represents alchemy, which is strange, but follow me here. Alchemy represents the fusing of the mythical with the scientific, the logical with the metaphysical. It's meant to represent the transmutation of baser metals into valuable metals and gold, and science does do that. represents perfection, three equal angles. The star represents astronomy, astronomy being the crown of all sciences.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Originally, this building wasn't a physics building. It was called Natural Philosophy Building, just as Galileo and even Maxwell were considered natural philosophers. That's what they used to call us as physicist back in the 1800s and earlier. The Oroboros, the snake, represents eternity, which can be found in scientific knowledge.

Starting point is 00:07:00 Principles passed on throughout all the ages, from master to to disciples. disciple. The triangle represents geometry, mathematical perfection, the simplest but most elegant of all designs, which is the art and science, melted together in this incredible building where Lord Kelvin used to do his work. Okay, why am I standing underneath this tree? Well, this tree represents the transmutation of carbon dioxide into oxygen. That's what trees do. And fittingly enough, it's at the Joseph Black building. Now, who was Joseph Black. Joseph Black was the man who discovered carbon dioxide. He called it inactive air.

Starting point is 00:07:42 And here we have the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. I wonder if my friend Lee Cronin, the Reggius Professor of Chemistry, works in this building. Let's find out if he's here. The zoology building right across from the physics department or the Kelvin building, the University of Glasgow, is where Lord Kelvin did his phenomenal. pioneering work. The front is decorated with beautiful flowers, lovely trees, and an amazing, but somewhat run down staircase that leads up to the very area where Kelvin did his pioneering work on the absolute zero temperature scale, where all molecular motion freezes, stops, even time itself may stop if cooled down to absolute zero.

Starting point is 00:08:44 moving really fast, about 300 meters per second. If you cool down a gas, you're making the atom's molecules move more slowly, and getting to the lowest possible temperatures. So what is the absolute zero temperature scale? Why is it so hard to get to? Well, absolute zero is defined as a temperature at which all molecular motion stops.

Starting point is 00:09:05 So to get something to cool to absolute zero, you need some reservoir of heat that takes away energy, transmits it, and releases it or dumps it to a different area. Today, in the Simon's Observatory, we use dilution refrigerator, which mix isotopes of helium, the two isotopes of helium, helium three and helium four. And by mixing them together, the heat is diffused or diluted in the process, just like dilution of alcoholic spirits, for example, releases heat from one area and absorbs it another. We use what's called a mixing chamber and a mixing chamber to dilute, depending on the ratio of helium 3 to helium 4.

Starting point is 00:09:48 We can get continuous closed cycle cooling down to near absolute zero temperatures. We can't actually reach absolute zero. That would take an infinite amount of waste heat expulsion, which is almost impossible to get. So we can make it so that the most energetic atoms just have enough energy to just move off and escape when they fly away. We can actually pull out just the hot atoms, leaving the rest of them at a cold of temperature. This is called a rapid of cooling. It's essentially the same as when you blow your coffee cup. The hottest molecules make it out of the water, and if you can constantly be blowing those away, you can cool down your coffee.

Starting point is 00:10:24 And that gets us all the way down to these temperatures of Michael Kelvin, a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. On the distance, we can see the Kelvin River Valley, which is what this area, is named after and why he was called Lord Calvin. Come with me. All. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly, big board buck slot machine by aristocrat gaming,

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Starting point is 00:11:37 Ontario museums and galleries at the University of Glasgow. There's a zoology museum, there's a art gallery, and there's a history museum. We can see some of the downtown skyline features of modern Glasgow mixed together with some of the old historical buildings. And even in a distance, you can see where the Science Center is. So here we can see down towards the Kelvin River and the sign center. The main part of the Glasgow skyline. And there's a big industrial center as well. University of Glasgow.

Starting point is 00:12:20 Here is Lord Thompson, Baron Kelvin of Larks. Lord Thompson, Lord Kelvin lived here in the late 19th century. There's a plaque commemorating his work here. He matriculated the university at the age of Lark. of 10. We believe that age of 10 was its professor of natural philosophy or physics from 1846 to 1899 and died as its chancellor. He's built into the fabric of this incredibly university. He's buried beside Isaac Newton and Westminster Abbey. So we're going to go through the courtyard here to find the sculpture, the statue of Lord Tjord. One of his most famous blunders, one of his most famous blunders.

Starting point is 00:13:11 was the laughable assertion in the late 1918, that the future of physics would be found merely in the sixth decimal place of numbers. In other words, everything that could be discovered was discovered, and the job of science was merely to find more and more precise expressions of its values. This was a year before, he died a year before, Max Planck's theory of the quantum nature of light. He never got to see the quantum revolution. and is reminiscent of Maxwell, who came up with Maxwell's equations,

Starting point is 00:13:45 but also predicted that it was necessary for there to be an ether in order to support the very waves of energy that he first postulated. Great men can make great mistakes, but still be considered for their intellectual achievement. The quadrangle of the Ontario Museum is breathtaking. Gothic spires, towers, you can just imagine Lord Kelvin being here, And even James Watt, his predecessor, we'll have more to say about Watt later. What does evolution have to do with Kelvin? Well, actually, Darwin and Kelvin clash, but it's not the way that you would think.

Starting point is 00:14:38 In the 19th century, two of the greatest scientific minds in history clashed, not out of ego, but due to physics. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution required billions of years for the microscopic changes to accumulate to form the changes that we recognize, from ancient fossils of animals to early high. prominence as displayed here. But there was a problem. Lord Kelvin, the father of thermodynamics, didn't believe the Earth was anywhere near that old. So there was a clash between the processes that were needed to produce humans of that time and the amount of time that physics set was possible. We see these exact same problems today when there are clings made that the James Webb Space Telescope shows galaxies that are far too mature to have existed shortly after the Big Bang.

Starting point is 00:15:25 These claims are exactly as misplaced as those of Lord Kelvin. What was the conflict about? Using heat conduction equations, Kelvin calculated how long the Earth could possibly have retained heat since its formation. His answer was that it could only have existed for 20 to 40 million years, a far, far cry from what Darwin had predicted just decades earlier, in terms of the billions of years needed for the evolutionary steps to take place. Now, Darwin was troubled. He believed in the theory of evolution with all his heart and soul, but he was troubled.

Starting point is 00:15:59 because of Lord Kelvin's Titanic intellect. Darwin actually admitted for a while that Kelvin could be right and his theory was thrown into flux, into turmoil, all because of a calculation made by this pioneering physicist. But who was right? Kelvin or Darwin? The father of the theory of evolution or the father of the theory of thermodynamics. Kelvin wasn't wrong.

Starting point is 00:16:19 He just didn't have knowledge of the actual processes that keep the earth warm to this time, which relies on something that wouldn't be discovered until several years after his. death. Radioactivity is the reason that the Earth maintains a constant flux of temperature and its ground core, rather than relying on heat from its primordial formation to be conducting through its surface from only 20 million years ago. And in fact, it's allowed it, the radioactive decays heat the Earth from the inside out. That's allowed it to exist for billions of years.

Starting point is 00:16:52 Just like the meteorites that fell on Glasgow, that's how science should work. Not name-calling, not Twitter threads, not call out debates on Peers Morgan, but instead honest feedback with a desire for epistemological truth seeking. Here we go. Here's the bust of Lord Kell. Yeah. Here's the bust of Lord Kilburn. Kelvin and James White, Lord Kelvin's patents.

Starting point is 00:17:21 You're going to do that? Let's see that's over here. Electrical pressure, voltmeter. Kelvin was also a businessman, capitalizing on the industrial revolution that he had unleashed. The devices and instruments including pressure gauges, electrometers, electrostatic generators, and many other devices used in metrology, even to this day the principles are still used.

Starting point is 00:17:44 Electrical current, more volt meters. His skill is in his inventor was only matched by his creativity as a physicist, but he was also a businessman, knowing how great science sometimes needs great patrons in order to support and continue research. Here's a current balance, these are all voltmeters, or current ammeters. This is called a Kelvin Mouse Mill Motor. No sooner was the first submarine

Starting point is 00:18:08 cables delayed for telecommunications. Then people wanted a way to recording the signals from them. The siphon recorder was used for this. A paper tape would move. The tape and the mouse mill motor rotates, it develops an electrostatic charge that attracts the ink to the paper, keeping it recorded in early form of data acquisition. Communication. There was a galvometer, which is a volt meter, and then eventually culminating with his patents with white, to make am meters, to make, this is a volt meter that the Kelvin company would make. Obviously, culminating with the light bulb and eventually the electric light bulb. It was first demonstrated by Joseph Swan in Britain, then patented by Thomas Edison.

Starting point is 00:18:57 A year later, Calvin used these lamps in his first electric lighting system in the city. By 1900, the scientific battle about, whether or not it was better to distribute AC or DC electricity was one. Nikola Tesla pioneered the AC system. Also advocated for gas discharge lighting the modern fluorescent tube. This gas tube was one he presented to Kelvin in 1902. Kelvin's legacy lives on in many different formats, from the temperature scale that bears his name to the many inventions of patents,

Starting point is 00:19:29 which he first pioneered for the first practical use of electrostatics and even magnetostatics, which we use for magnetic recordings. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank.

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating - The Scientists: Lord Kelvin’s Dangerous Idea (Absolute Zero)

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