critical mass

See also: Critical Mass

English

Noun

critical mass (countable and uncountable, plural critical masses)

1. (physics) The amount of fissile material needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
2. (figurative) The tipping point.

Related terms

• subcritical mass
• supercritical mass

Translations

amount of fissile material needed to a nuclear chain reaction

• Catalan: massa crítica f
• Czech: kritické množství n
• Dutch: kritische massa
• Finnish: kriittinen massa
• German: kritische Masse f
• Greek: κρίσιμη μάζα f (krísimi máza)
• Hungarian: kritikus tömeg
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: markmassi m
• Italian: massa critica f
• Japanese: 臨界質量 (りんかいしつりょう, rinkai shitsuryō)
• Portuguese: massa crítica f
• Russian: крити́ческая ма́сса (ru) f (kritíčeskaja mássa)
• Swedish: kritisk massa c
• Tagalog: maselang bugat

the number of people needed to trigger a phenomenon

• Danish: kritisk masse c
• Finnish: kriittinen massa
• German: kritische Masse f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: κρίσιμη μάζα f (krísimi máza)
• Swedish: kritisk massa c

Further reading

• critical mass on Wikipedia.Wikipedia