Absolute Hot

Absolute zero is the coldest temperature universally possible. The absolute hottest? A scientific point of contention:

Contender #1—10³² K

Certain cosmological models, including the one that has held sway for decades, the Standard Model, posit a theoretical highest temperature. It's called the Planck temperature, after the German physicist Max Planck, and it equals about 100 million million million million million degrees, or 10³² Kelvin. "It's ridiculous is what it is," said Columbia physicist Arlin Crotts when I asked him if he could please put that number in perspective for me. "It's a billion billion times the largest temperature that we have to think about" (in gamma-ray bursts and quasars, for instance). Oh, that helped.

Truthfully, when contemplating the Planck temperature, you can forget perspective. All the usual terms for very hot—scorching, broiling, hellish, insert your favorite here—prove ludicrously inadequate. In short, saying 10³² K is hot is like saying the universe occupies some space.

I like to use the term "Texas for two weeks in July with no AC" as my absolute threshold for hotness, but I may be slightly subjective on the topic at hand. Have I mentioned how much I love living in California?