critical mass
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.55 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The minimum amount of fissile material needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The minimum amount of something or the minimum number of people needed to trigger a phenomenon.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A direct action event in which bicycle riders travel through city streets as a group.
Example Sentences
- "[…] Rhodes calculated the uranium bomb would eventually need “about 42 kilograms – 92.6 pounds,” which Rhodes then stated was approximately 2.8 critical masses. In other words, critical mass can be calculated to be about 15 kilograms."
- "[…] depending on the rare circumstance of there being a critical mass of persons whose combination of interests and resources is high enough to overcome the feasibility problem."
- "The critical mass comprises the pioneers of an SNS who pay the start-up costs and set up a circle of acquaintances for newcomers; thereafter new subscribers to a mature SNS can join one after another rather than as a group (Heijden, 2004)."
- "The problem was not just that they had never quite reached that point of critical mass where their income would finally exceed their many costs and liabilities, it was that breaking good, for Mira at least, had always meant more than simply breaking even."