Temperature relevant coordinates are fixed. An exceptionally suitable system is the ideal gas, which can provide a temperature scale that matches the absolute Kelvin scale. The Kelvin scale is defined on the basis of the second law of thermodynamics. In the previous section certain properties of temperature were expressed by the zeroth law of thermodynamics. It is also possible to define temperature in terms of the second law of thermodynamics which deals with entropy. The second law states that any process will result in either no change or a net increase in the entropy of the universe. This can be understood
Absolute zero the zero was equivalent to about −240 on the Celsius scale. This close approximation to the modern value of −273.15 °C for the zero of the air-thermometer was further improved upon in 1779 by Johann Heinrich Lambert, who observed that might be regarded as absolute cold. Values of this order for the absolute zero were not, however, universally accepted about this period. Pierre-Simon Laplace and Antoine Lavoisier, in their 1780 treatise on heat, arrived at values ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 below the freezing-point of water, and thought that in any case it must be at least 600 below. John