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The coldest temperature of the scale is Absolute Zero, at -273 degrees Celsius, and is found only in the laboratory or the most remote depths of space. It is called Absolute because theoretically, temperature cannot get any colder than this due to basic reasons of physics. There is no upper limit to the hottest temperature, as heat is created by an energised excitation of atoms within space, and can therefore extend well above the hundreds of thousands of degress (see Fig 1.), depending upon how much energy you can expend in creating a higher temperature. However, once you have reached Absolute Zero, no amount of further energy expenditure will enable you to pass below -273 C.

Biological life on this planet is confined to environments where the ambient temperature is between a minimum of around -30 degrees, for example on the poles and certain alpine regions, and a maximum of around 55 degrees, in the tropical deserts. The more extreme the hot and cold temperatures are, the less prevalent various forms of life are found to exist. Average normal Human body core temperature is 36.7 degrees Celsius (+/- .2), and this temperature also appears very close to the upper average temperatures of the environments in which biological life proliferates at its most dense - the tropical jungles.

Temperature is generally thought of as a linear scale, as a series of numbers in sequence from low to high, and rightly so as temperature today is measured mechanically by scientific instruments with linear or log scales. But what these instruments cannot show us is how important one particular small and unique band of 100 degrees of temperature difference is to the survival of a whole terrestrial ecosystem: water changes from being frozen as ice to boiling into a gas, and plants die from drying out and burning, or freezing and shutting down.

The amount of plant and animal diversity dependent upon such a narrow band in temperature, and the variability of the physical properties of materials between 0 degrees - 100 degrees C is not found in any other 100 degree band of temperatures along the complete temperature scale. It is as if all life and existence is compressed to occur between these upper and lower maximums. Only 30 degrees variance above or below Human core temperature of 36.7, and an unprotected person will shutdown and die from either hypothermia or heat exhaustion in a very short space of time..

If we were taken suddenly and dropped into an alien landscape where the extremes of temperature ranged from 200 degrees C to 300 degrees C, we would simply view it as "very hot", to "very very hot". Water in the form of gas doesn't change properties throughout the 100 degrees from 200 C, in the same dramatic way as it does in the 100 degrees from zero.

When you're trying to survive an Antarctic winter in Vostok, a daytime and nightime difference in temperature of 20 degrees, from -55C to -75C will be unnoticeable by your body's senses, but such a difference in a temperate climate will have you either rugging up with jackets, or stripping off for the swimming pool.

Fig. 1 The Temperature Scale
(in degrees Celsius)

Fig. 2 Earth's Heat Environment

It is clear then, that the way we perceive temperature is not at all linear, but relative to a personal, comfortable median based upon our body's core temperature and the amount of variation it can withstand.

Because our body has the capacity to generate its own heat, humans have the ability to better withstand environments much colder than their core temperature, than they can environments that are hotter by the same amount. Furthermore, when one is cold, it is far easier to dress up warmer than it is to dress down cooler when one is hot. At some point in a heated environment, a naked man has no further clothes to remove to cool down, whereas in all manner of cold climates, one has simply to don on another coat to get warmer.

Why is this polarity not symmetrical? Why can we continue to dress warmer when cold, but not continue to dress cooler, after a certain point, when hot?

The answer lies in the nature of heat itself.

To paraphrase the question I asked when examining the Light-Dark-Mixed Triplicity of Visible Light we find also that Cold can be defined as an absence of Heat, but we cannot define Heat as "an absence of Cold."

Firstly, we assign the Taoist Yin-Yang polarities to our concept of cold and hot. Cold can be said to be "Yin", and hot "Yang". This is actually a standard traditional Chinese analogy that has been in use for many centuries, in disciplines such as medicine and geomancy. Next, we will notice in the temperature scale illustrations above that hot and cold are juxtaposed to each other, and separated by a midground area of neutrality. This mid ground is what we perceive as a comfortable temperature, and pleasant balance of hot and cold.

Fig. 3. Yin-Yang polarity of heat and cold.

We can therefore graphically illustrate heat and cold as two polarities; Yin and Yang, separated and juxtaposed to each other (see fig. 3). The mid ground where temperatures are to us "warm", is where heat and cold meet. The intermixing of heat and cold can be graphically represented by a further traditional Taoist diagram, a motif used in mystical art to depict the interactions of energy in the universe (see fig. 4).

Fig 4. The visual representation of the intermixing of Yin and Yang

The characteristic of this art motif is in the continual splitting in half of one colour block into 2 smaller constituent blocks, of two colours. What results is a successive increase in detail and intricacy of the linework, which the Taoists thought perfectly demonstrated how Yin and Yang intermixed, down to a microscopic level.

In the very centre of this image we see a thin vertical line of alternating black and white lines, evenly spaced and equally composed of Yin and Yang. This line represents the balance point between the two extremes, the point where Yin and Yang touch at their closest and most basic level.

If we were to remove the solid black and solid white block on each end of the diagram from the main body and slide them apart, we would now be left with three different polarities.

Fig 5. Pure Yin and Pure Yang and the intermixing of Yin and Yang

These three polarities are of course, what we establish as a Triplicity, and it gives us our "Inwardly Converging Geometry".

Fig. 6 The Inwardly Converging Geometry.

What "warm" actually is will depend on the values we apply to "cold" and "hot" and where place ourselves in relation to the source of cold and hot. But we can place ourselves in the centre and know if we go too far one way, we experience more cold, and if we go too far the other way we experience more hot. This Geometry very much describes a spatial relationship between cold and heat, and is particularly useful for analysing what happens at the "warm" state.

Next, we can also use Triplex Unity Theory to help us understand not so much the spatial relationships between cold and heat, but the process of heating, and to do this we must find a different Geometry that will define this process, because the process itself is different.

We know from science that heat travels towards cold, but cold does not travel towards heat. This is directly related to the reason why Cold is defined as "an absence of heat" and why Heat cannot be defined as "an absence of cold". Of course, you and I sitting in the sweltering sun on a hot day can say "I wish it were cooler", which could be taken to mean that a greater quantity of coldness is required, but this is simply an expression. Scientifcally speaking, the day is hot because there is too much heat, and not a lack of cold.

This may sound rather silly, but it is grounded in physical principles. Heat is produced by the dissipation of energy from moving atoms. Cold is not produced, but is naturally present, when there is less movement of atoms in space. Heat will travel towards cold, because the moving atoms will disperse to fill empty space in order to find equilibrium in that space. Therefore heat will dissipate into space, thus warming the natural ambient temperature until the energy produced is finally expended.

More heat is produced by having more atoms in space, and energising them such that they move around more, dispersing energy in the form of heat according to the laws of thermodynamics. More cold will be felt (not produced), when the moving atoms have either ceased moving, or dispersed through space until they are thinly distributed. Coldness is a product then, of an absence of heat. Heat is a product of the presence of more atoms moving around in an energised state.

This is perhaps one of the reasons why Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" states "know the masculine, but cleave to the feminine." The masculine is synonymous with Yang, feminine with Yin. The verse is telling us to know how to be Yang, but always return to being Yin. In effect it is saying that it is better if we preserve more energy by being relaxed, rather than wasting our energy by being active.

We can view cold and heat then, as a non-energised state, and a highly energised state. Once again we can assign the Taoist Yin-Yang polarity to these states, Yin being the non-energised and Yang being the energised state. This time, we are examining the process of heating when forming our Triplicity, so we can help ourselves by constructing the Geometry that somehow relates graphically to the process heat takes in the real world.

Using the imagery of a pot of water boiling over flame (see fig. 8), we can take some of the graphical elements and use them as a basis for constructing our Geometry. We know that hot air rises, so we can make the Geometry we are constructing a vertically aligned one.

This vertical analogy is further reinforced with our knowledge and use of the simple thermometer. As the temperature increases, the mercury, or red ink rises along the capillary tube that is connected to the well of liquid in the bulb at the bottom. Of course, this movement is simply a result of the expansion of the liquid in the bulb through the connecting tube, and not related to gravity at all, however it is interesting to note how our understandings of natural processes have become enculturated through our choice of technology.

The lower position we will represent with Yin, and the upper position we will represent with Yang. When boiling a pot of water, heat is transferred from the flame beneath, and it rises through the water, heating it. The cold water becomes warm, gets agitated, until finally it boils and rising hot steam is produced.

Therefore, we can place the polarity of "cold" at the bottom, and "hot" at the top. In the middle, of course, is "warm". If we apply the Triangle, Circle Square to these three polarities, we arrive at the Cold-Warm-Hot Triplicity of Temperature, as shown in the Geometry below (see fig.9).

Fig 9. Cold-Warm-Hot Triplicity of Temperature

Because we have borrowed the rising aspect of heat in creating this Geometry, we have called this an Ascending Linear Progressive Geometry. The cold, non-energised state lies at the bottom, as if it has succumbed to gravity. As energy is applied and thus heat produced, it rises, as though breaking free from gravity. The upper most position is therefore seen as the hottest, or most energised position, and the lowest is seen as the least so.

Fig. 7 Yin takes the lower position, Yang takes the upper.

Fig. 8 Boiling water.

Fig. 10 Same Geometry depicting different,
but related Triplicities

The middle position is seen as a transitional stage, where the matter passes through from being non-energised to energised. It is not viewed as any less important than the other two however, in fact, it is often the more important because being in the middle of two opposing states, there are more potential opportunities that this state can change into.

In figure 10, we can also depict a couple of other Triplicities related to heating water, using the same Triplicity we have constructed for Cold-Warm-Hot. We are encroaching on Unity study here, but nevertheless it is easy to see how the Triangle, Circle and Square Triplicity we have developed can easily represent and depict a variety of physical concepts quite graphically, and without alteration. Hot is obviously related to steam, which is one of the 3 states of matter, a gas, and warm, cold also relate to etc.

Each geometrical symbol becomes a metaphor for a wide variety of technical information, provided this information can be properly broken down into a three-fold division. This wide variety of information can then be related provided that each of the three parts of the technical information in each system relates to each other in similar ways, at the same level.

We can use the Inwardly Converging Geometry for the Cold - Hot - Warm Triplicity of Temperature and Ascending Linear Progressive Geometry for the Cold - Warm - Hot Triplicity of Temperature, as mnemonic models for analysing other systems of information which may be considerably more complex than the difference between heat and cold. Knowing how these Geometries are constructed and how they function may play an important part in helping us understand how systems of information function, that possess identical Geometries as these. This facility will become more evident in the section on Unity Studies, which is the closer to the main goal of Triplex Unity Theory.

The question I leave with you all now is this:

Since Triplex Unity Theory has demonstrated an inherent similarity between the properties of heat and cold to dark and light, does this mean that we are yet to discover in our Universe "cold matter"?