Zero degrees
I have only been asked a couple times by adult Japanese why the word “degrees” is plural, when the temperature is zero. It’s a good question.
But it is a mistake to think that “0” degrees - the freezing point of water in the Metric System - means an absence of temperature. On the contrary, there are hundreds of degrees of heat that go in to making something that warm. We learn in high school physics class that we cannot “make” something cold. We can only make it less warm. Heat/energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change form.
The difference between −30° (not uncommon in my home country during the winter) and 0° is an incredible 30° of heat! If that heat difference were all on the positive side of the scale it would be oppressively hot, and people would really feel it. Human beings might not be very sensitive to the heat difference between −30° and 0°, but I’m confident that Mother Nature feels the difference.
Absolute zero (−273.15° Celsius) is the point at which the fundamental particles of nature have minimal vibrational motion, retaining only quantum mechanical, zero-point energy-induced particle motion. I read that the theoretical temperature is determined by extrapolating the ideal gas law. I don’t know what that means. The value of absolute zero - −273.15° Celsius, or −459.67° Fahrenheit - is set by international agreement.
So now I’ve thought about it, if the question ever comes up again I look forward to being able to make the point that “0” does not mean an absence of degrees of heat.