If the sun went out, how long would we have to live?

KidRock said:
how the hell would scientists know that the universe is -273 zero.. i am sure there are colder places in the universe.
Actually there aren't.. and scientists know because they use things called "brain cells". :p
 
LOL, some of you guys need to read up on science a little bit. :)

Let me explain a few things: Temperature is a measurement of movement. The reason -273.16 °C(0 Kelvin) is the lowest possible temperature is because, well, you can't get much more still than not moving at all. Water boils at 100 degrees C, meaning that at 100 degrees C, the water molecules are "shaking" fast enough that they have enough energy to break away from the other H20 molecules. So, it turns into a gas molecule, which isn't connected to another atom. When water freezes, 0C, it doesn't have enough energy (movement) to "slide" around other atoms, so it simply jiggles in place as ice. (Yes, solids jiggle)

As for if the sun went out, how long would we have to live:

I don't know. I'd say 3-4 days. The ocean would keep heat for quite a while before freezing over. But the earth would definately drop to at least -100C at the equator within a few days. (It wouldn't go to -273.16 °C, it's not possible)
 
:dozey: Less than 1 minute, we'd all go crazy real fast... our heads would explode by the fear.
 
AntiAnto said:
The temperature is not -273 Celsius, but -271. Oh and I remember... probably in particles accelerator, they made tests and they discovered that at -273 Celsius, all the matter freezes. That means that the chimic reactions (energy) between the atoms would disappear. There would be no molecules and so, no life. The universe CAN'T be at -273 Celsius. They estimated the temperature at -271 Celsius.

Absolute zero is the temperature when an atom stops moving. However, the Heisenburg uncertainity principle states that you cannot know an atom's location and momentum at the same time. Therefore, if an atom stopped moving you could find its location and momentum at the same time thus violating the heisenburg uncertainity principle.

So absolute zero does not exist. Absolute zero is a purely theortical number. If absolute zero can be achieved, a good junk of quantum physics would be thrown out the window.

As for the question, it would be within a day. When it is nighttime, that side of the earth is not receiving any heat whatso ever from the sun. Depending on some factors, it would get really cold from a period of hours to a day and a half.
 
so many different answers... some people say less then a day..some people say 8 minutes.. some people said 1000 years..
 
considering that it can drop 20 degrees over night, i think without the sun we'd all be dead in a day.
 
KidRock said:
so many different answers... some people say less then a day..some people say 8 minutes.. some people said 1000 years..

It takes a 1000 years (or more) for the the original source of light in the center of the sun to make it to the surface. It takes an additional 8 minutes from the surface of the sun to the earth.

In reality, the sun would never just *stop* its nuclear reaction. It will continue fusion until it runs out of hydrogen. It will them move onto helium, etc. From my understanding, the sun only has enough power and energy to create fusion up till the element of Iron. At that point several different things could happen. No of them would be very pleasant for planet earth.

Hypothetical, if the sun just stopped fusion right now, we would still have 1000 years of light left from the sun. Just because the reaction creating the photon has stopped does not prevent the photon enroute from completing its journey to the earth.
 
blahblahblah said:
Absolute zero is the temperature when an atom stops moving. However, the Heisenburg uncertainity principle states that you cannot know an atom's location and momentum at the same time. Therefore, if an atom stopped moving you could find its location and momentum at the same time thus violating the heisenburg uncertainity principle.

So absolute zero does not exist. Absolute zero is a purely theortical number. If absolute zero can be achieved, a good junk of quantum physics would be thrown out the window.

I believe the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applies to subatomic particles, not atoms.
 
blahblahblah said:
It takes a 1000 years (or more) for the the original source of light in the center of the sun to make it to the surface. It takes an additional 8 minutes from the surface of the sun to the earth.

In reality, the sun would never just *stop* its nuclear reaction. It will continue fusion until it runs out of hydrogen. It will them move onto helium, etc. From my understanding, the sun only has enough power and energy to create fusion up till the element of Iron. At that point several different things could happen. No of them would be very pleasant for planet earth.

Hypothetical, if the sun just stopped fusion right now, we would still have 1000 years of light left from the sun. Just because the reaction creating the photon has stopped does not prevent the photon enroute from completing its journey to the earth.
learn something new everyday!
 
Neutrino said:
I believe the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applies to subatomic particles, not atoms.

I learned otherwise (I think). I understood it as you can apply the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to atoms (ie electrons, neutrons and protons).

I think it makes sense that way since we cannot know the location and momentum of an electron. That falls under the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which means it includes atoms.

Then again, I'm not a physics major. :E
 
blahblahblah said:
I learned otherwise (I think). I understood it as you can apply the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to atoms (ie electrons, neutrons and protons).

I think it makes sense that way since we cannot know the location and momentum of an electron. That falls under the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which means it includes atoms.

Then again, I'm not a physics major. :E

Ok, sorry. I looked it up and yes, you're right that it does hold true for atoms as well. It's just that it's not nearly so much of a factor when examining atoms as it is for examining electrons.

It actaully affects everything, but it's influence is negligable for macroscopic objects.
 
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is simply a principle relevant to modern physics; its not absolute. If we develop new ways of detecting particles, it doesnt have to apply.
 
KidRock said:
lol who would have guessed HL2 fans are physics genius's

lol me and you both, now we know what people do when there's no women around.

j/k!
 
The sun would swallow us and half of the system before it went out.
 
just a couple of corrections :E
blahblahblah said:
In reality, the sun would never just *stop* its nuclear reaction. It will continue fusion until it runs out of hydrogen. It will them move onto helium, etc. From my understanding, the sun only has enough power and energy to create fusion up till the element of Iron. At that point several different things could happen. No of them would be very pleasant for planet earth.
actually, the sun is too small to fuse anything heavier than oxygen. once all the hydrogen is used up the sun will begin burning the resultant helium into carbon (and it'll burn some carbon with helium to make oxygen). iron is the last element that can be fused by a stellar core to produce energy, b/c it's such a stable element (the binding energy is higher for iron than any other element). but our sun is too small to get that far.

Hypothetical, if the sun just stopped fusion right now, we would still have 1000 years of light left from the sun. Just because the reaction creating the photon has stopped does not prevent the photon enroute from completing its journey to the earth.
not quite. while you're right about the convection pathways, if fusion stopped right away, the core and outer shells of the sun would collapse in on themselves, and the resulting shockwave would blow some solar material off. all life on earth would come to an abrupt halt very shortly afterwards. the sun needs the energy produced by fusion to support it's mass. it's basically a persistent explosion that's balancing the gravitational force.

i was paying attention in my planetary materials class :cool:
 
All I know is if the sun went out, I'd start some looting, big time looting.
 
Ritz said:
All I know is if the sun went out, I'd start some looting, big time looting.

8 minutes to live and you spend your time stealing.
:rolling:
 
Helios said:
The atmosphere would still hold in heat. Otherwise we would freeze at night too. So the temp would steadlly drop until it reached -300 something.

It could never drop that far. The coldest it can get is somewhere around -273°C.
 
The_Monkey said:
It could never drop that far. The coldest it can get is somewhere around -284°C.

Um...0 Kelvin equals -273.15°C
 
Sprafa said:
The sun would swallow us and half of the system before it went out.

Not true. It would only swallow Mercurius and Venus. Although the temprature would be high enough for all the oceans to boil away in an instant.

Neutrino said:
Um...0 Kelvin equals -273.15°C

Ah, yes, that was what I was meaning. Sorry, must have thought of something else...
 
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