dictionary help| critical mass | computing dictionary |
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.
(01 Mar 1994)
critical illness, critical illness polyneuropathy, critical incident < Prev | Next > critical mass, critical micelle concentration
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| critical mass | medical dictionary |
<chemistry, radiobiology> The minimum amount of mass of a combination of radioactive substances needed for the substances to generate and lose an exactly balanced number of neutrons to make a chain reaction which will keep going by itself.
(09 Oct 1997)
critical illness polyneuropathy, critical incident, critical mass < Prev | Next > critical micelle concentration, critical organ
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