X-Nico

unusual facts about critical mass



Alvin M. Weinberg

The HRE went into operation in 1950 and, at the criticality party, Weinberg brought the appropriate spirits: "When piles go critical in Chicago, we celebrate with wine. When piles go critical in Tennessee, we celebrate with Jack Daniel's."

Reactimeter

A reactimeter is a diagnostic device used in nuclear power plants (and other nuclear applications) for measuring the reactivity (in inhours) of fissile materials as they approach criticality.

Tungsten carbide

A criticality accident occurred at Los Alamos National Laboratory on 21 August 1945 when Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a plutonium sphere, causing the subcritical mass to go supercritical with the reflected neutrons.


see also

Duke Nukem: Critical Mass

A PlayStation Portable version entitled Duke Nukem Trilogy: Critical Mass was developed but was cancelled.

John Hasbrouck Van Vleck

However it was not employed for the Fat Man bomb at Nagasaki, which relied on implosion of a plutonium shell to reach critical mass.

League of Blind Women

League of Blind Women was a short-lived all-star alternative rock band that included Robert Buck (lead guitar) from 10,000 Maniacs, Jerry Augustyniak (drums) from 10,000 Maniacs, Casey Orr (bass) from Gwar and Rigor Mortis, Mike Scaccia (guitar) from Ministry and Rigor Mortis, Kol Marshall (keyboards) from Critical Mass and See No Evil, and Chris Kelly (vocals).

Louis Bachelier

Philip Ball, Critical Mass Random House, 2004 ISBN 0-09-945786-5, pp238–242.

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

Lotus 1-2-3 founder and early Internet activist Mitch Kapor commented in a Time magazine article in 1993 that "the true sign that popular interest has reached critical mass came this summer when the New Yorker printed a cartoon showing two computer-savvy canines".