critical mass

Definitions

1. A direct action event in which bicycle riders travel through city streets as a group.
2. The minimum amount of fissile material needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
   countable, uncountable
3. The minimum amount of something or the minimum number of people needed to trigger a phenomenon.
   broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] 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.”

CEFR level