critical mass

[′krid·ə·kəl ′mas]

(nucleonics)

The mass of fissionable material of a particular shape that is just sufficient to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

critical mass

In physics, the minimum amount of fissionable material required to sustain a chain reaction. Of a software product, describes a condition of the software such that fixing one bug introduces one plus epsilon bugs. (This malady has many causes: creeping featurism, ports to too many disparate environments, poor initial design, etc.) When software achieves critical mass, it can never be fixed; it can only be discarded and rewritten.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Critical Mass

the smallest mass of a fissionable substance at which a self-sustaining fission chain reaction of atomic nuclei can occur; it is characterized by the approach of the neutron multiplication factor to 1. The corresponding dimensions and volume of the device in which a chain reaction takes place are also called critical.

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References in periodicals archive

We caught up with Erik Garcia, one of the founding members of LBcycology, and a participant in the 2015 Critical Mass ride.

LONG BEACH CYCLISTS REACH "CRITICAL MASS"

Kjellberg's painstaking process to create Critical Mass is worth reiterating.

Henny Linn Kjellberg: Critical Mass

"It's really a chance to reclaim the road." Leamington ran its own critical mass group during the summer of 2008, with a group of 20 to 30 cyclists meeting at the bandstand and riding around Leamington and up towards Newbold Comyn every week.

Critical mass is a chance to reclaim the roads; IT'S a global cycling phenomenon with regular events in every major UK city. MARY GRIFFIN asks why critical mass hasn't made its way to Coventry

But doesn't the very notion of reclaiming the road suggest that part of critical mass' purpose is to disrupt motorised traffic?

Mass bike ride is a celebration of cycling; Cyclists are taking to the streets in Birmingham in a critical mass. MARY GRIFFIN joins 100 bikers as they weave through the city as part of a monthly quest to celebrate their pastime

By tapping into the power of networks, IIP and ECA are succeeding in generating the critical mass needed to move Department initiatives past niche audiences and into the mainstream where they can gain momentum and flourish.

Leveraging networks

However, there is still a long way to go to achieve a critical mass of XBRL-tagged items.

What's XBRL reporting got do with got to do with bar godes?

The idea of the Critical Mass bike ride began in San Francisco in 1992.

Real pedal power for campaign; CYCLISTS TO TAKE TO THE STREETS

"However the existence of Islamic blog-feed sites indicates that the community is reaching something of a critical mass," he added.

Britain names 20 most influential pro-Islamic blogs

I participated in San Francisco's Halloween critical mass. Thousands of bikers converged on EMB, fully costumed and ready to takeover the streets.

Fixed flat

Specifically, critical mass theory suggests once a definable group reaches a certain size within an organization, group interactions transform the organization's culture.

Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): Serving Latino Students. Executive Summary