| 1. | Physics. the amount of a given fissionable material necessary to sustain a chain reaction at a constant rate. |
| 2. | an amount necessary or sufficient to have a significant effect or to achieve a result: a critical mass of popular support. |
| critical mass n.
|
In physics, the amount of material that must be present before a chain reaction can sustain itself.
Note: The term critical mass is used to refer generally to the minimum amount of something needed to produce a given effect: “The town needs a critical mass of industry to attract more business.”
Critical Mass
A very important or crucial stage in a company's development.
Investopedia Commentary
For example, you might hear that a company has grown to a critical mass where it has the economies of scale to compete globally.
See also: Economies of Scale
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.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-12-23)