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glurth t1_jd4n4io wrote

Reply to comment by KarlSethMoran in Can a single atom be determined to be in any particular phase of matter? by Zalack

"You need internal degrees of freedom to define temperature."

This sounds inaccurate. Wouldn't the excitement states of a single atom's electrons be an internal degree of freedom?

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KarlSethMoran t1_jd4x47b wrote

That would define the electronic temperature, not the temperature of the atom in the classical, point particle picture.

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Merakel t1_jd4oogr wrote

It sounds weird to me too, but I also at first thought he was talking about fahrenheit so I'm probably not worth listening to :/

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