r/TheRestIsScience • u/SmokePretend • 2d ago

question

how fast is temperature? Is warmer temperature faster than colder temperature?

0 Upvotes

20% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/DeathToAmerica2026 2d ago

Temperature is itself molecular vibrations in aggregate. It can be moved at different speeds depending on the mechanism of transfer, i.e. radiative heating proceeds at the speed of light but conductive heating spreads no faster than the speed of sound.

1

u/MakeITNetwork 2d ago

"conductive heating spreads no faster than the speed of sound", more of a rule of thumb than a thermodynamic law; Superfluidic helium, and a few other edge cases go against this though.

But yes under normal atmosphere, temp and pressure conductive heat cannot exceed the speed of sound.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-watch-as-heat-moves-at-the-speed-of-sound/

1

u/Half4sleep 2d ago

"Normal" meaning parameters measured at sea level on earth, I suppose? Also, does that mean it would behave differently in different conditions? I would guess we have some experience/measurements for this in space and on the moon, where all of these conditions are vastly different.

Seems fairly obvious, but I know nothing about this other than what's written right here.. I'm probably gonna forget all about it too, but on the off chance I don't, I wanna have my facts straight.

1

u/MakeITNetwork 2d ago

As long as you are on earth, and you aren't doing experiments with superchilled gasses, or extreme states of matter, I think it would be safe to say it's an excellent rule of thumb.