A Reader Answers: ‘Critical Mass’ Origin
DOI: 10.1063/1.1768661
Cameron Reed asked about the origin of the term “critical mass” (Physics Today, January 2004, page 14 ). A search of the full text database of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (http://ads.harvard.edu ) shows that “critical mass” was first mentioned in 1919, in volume 31 of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, page 121. An article by Hugo Benioff attributes the term to Arthur Eddington, who “singled out a critical mass—one at which a vital change of condition takes place.”
More about the authors
Guenther Eichhorn, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US .
Michael J. Kurtz, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US .
