{
  "id": "critical-mass.threshold",
  "term": "critical mass",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "emergence",
  "domain": "social movements, nuclear physics, marketing",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "When a parameter reaches a wall where the whole exceeds its parts, and drift that was not enough before now carries the thing across.",
  "folk_gloss": "A sufficient number of people or things gathered to start a new phase.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "wall.range-end",
      "drift.aimless",
      "whole.complete",
      "part.relation",
      "parameter.condition"
    ],
    "interaction": "interaction.process",
    "novel_properties": [
      "whole.exceeding.parts"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2008, Iceland's banking sector collapsed when liabilities exceeded seven times GDP, triggering systemic failure.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor achieved prompt criticality after neutron flux passed 1.006, overwhelming control rods.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The #MeToo hashtag reached critical mass on Twitter on October 15, 2017, generating over 500,000 mentions in 48 hours.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "critical mass"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the whole exceeding its parts"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-critical-mass.threshold"
}