No, because Celsius is not an absolute scale. We can't say that double the degrees means double the heat energy, because our zero point is still arbitrary. When 0 degrees is set at the freezing point of water, that means something to us, but ultimately, from the perspective of calculative heat energy, it's still as arbitrary as setting 0 at any other temperature: the freezing point of salt water, the melting point of lead, or the temperature at which the king is cold.

Enter the Kelvin scale. This is just like the Celsius scale, only shifted by 273.15 degrees. Therefore, 0 K is absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature. Any positive temperatures have heat energy in proportion to their position on the Kelvin scale. If one thermometer reads 50 Kelvin and another reads 100 Kelvin, the latter is showing twice the heat energy.

Because Kelvin is an absolute scale, it's the best temperature scale we have. There are other absolute scales, such as the rarely used Rankin scale. Rankin is simply the Fahrenheit scale shifted by 459.67 degrees, such that 0 R is absolute zero. But Kelvin is based on Celsius, which is used in almost every country except the U.S., and so Kelvin is the SI base unit of temperature.

And while 0 K is absolute zero, certain systems can achieve negative temperatures. Temperatures represented as negative numbers on the Kelvin scale are not colder than absolute zero, but they have the interesting property of being hotter than any positive temperature, in the sense that heat will flow from the negative temperatures to the positive temperatures. One way to do this is by creating a semi-isolated system of non-interacting spins in a magnetic field, which has been one of Milli's favorite hobbies lately.

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