Is there a answer to this?

[BabyChrissy1993]

My friend sent me this over MSN and it's completely baffled me.
'If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?'

Is there actually a answer? Or is it just something to make me think?

Arghh i'm going to be wondering this all night now, why ask me something like that just before bed...

[spitfire]

0 celcius =32 farenheight.
twice as cold would = -32 farenheight.

[Cloud]

Temperature scales are somewhat man made. We feel heat (cold = lack of heat) due to the kinetic energy of the molecules of air that hit our skin. Also, from school, I remember that absolute temperature is proportional to the kinetic energy. So, if we assume that twice as cold is half the heat then the kinetic energy has to halve also.

Lets employ some algebra ...

If the outside temperature is T0 degrees Celsius then the kinetic energy is E0 = k(T0 + 273) and half the kinetic energy is Ex = E0/2 = k(Tx - 273), where Tx is the temperature we're interested in and k is the constant of proportionality.

Thus,
E0/2 = Ex
or
(T0 + 273)/2 = (Tx + 273)
or
Tx = (T0 + 273)/2 - 273 = T0/2 + 273/2 - 273 = -136.5 degrees Celsius

I'd say that the answer is -136.6 Celsius

A quite silly answer for a fairly silly question


(p.s. thanks for giving this insomniac something to think about)

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks for giving this early bird something to laugh about! Great answers, keep em coming guys!

[Graye]

If you Google this as a complete phrase there are 124,000 answers (most of them different). So I think the answer is no...

[MKG]

Cold is cold. Twice as cold is c-cold. Three times as cold is c-c-cold.

Simples. You see it all of the time in Enid Blyton books

Mike

EDIT: If it's really bothering you, the answer is that it's a "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" question. Cold isn't a measure of anything - if it feels cold today, it's only because it was warmer yesterday. It's a term with no definable absolute reference of its own - so twice as cold is completely meaningless without supplying a temperature change reference. The question appears to provide a reference of 0 degrees, but that's the clever red herring. The full reference would have included the temperature the day before the question was asked. "If it was 5 degrees yesterday and it's 0 degrees today and it will be twice as cold tomorrow, what will the temperature be?" Now the answer's easy.

So, send a message back to your friend - "I have answered the question silently. Do you agree with my conclusions?"

[Geoff]

My friend sent me this over MSN and it's completely baffled me.
'If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?'

Is there actually a answer? Or is it just something to make me think?

There's no answer. Temperature is actually measured from an absolute point - absolute zero (zero degrees Kelvin, -273.15 degrees celsius). So you can have twice as warm. If it is 10 degrees centigrade then it is 283.15 degrees kelvin. Twice as warm would be 566.3 degrees kelvin or 293.15 degrees celsius. "Twice as cold" makes no sense. You can only have "half as warm."

If it is zero degrees today and it is going to be half as warm tomorrow then it is going to be -136.5 degrees celsius - considerably lower than the lowest recorded (naturally occuring) temperature on Earth.

:-)

[MKG]

Well, you did ask, Chrissy.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

Blimey - Geoff's answer is practically the same as Cloud's, only 0.1 of a degree C difference! Maybe Cloud's workings out were for real.

[Geoff]

deleted....must learn to think before posting...

[Cloud]

Blimey - Geoff's answer is practically the same as Cloud's, only 0.1 of a degree C difference! Maybe Cloud's workings out were for real.

Actually my -136.6 is a typo. I had ment what Chris wrote: -136.5 C

However, we both use an approximation of -273C for absolute zero. We ought to have used the defined value of -273.15 C. Of course we can all see how that affect the result.