chain_reaction has definitions from the fields of chemistry,physics,nuclear physics
1
[ noun ] (chemistry) a series of chemical reactions in which the product of one is a reactant in the next

Used in print

(Francis J. Johnston and John E. Willard, "The...)

Furthermore , the exchange would not be expected to be sensitive to trace amounts of impurities because it would not be apt to be a chain_reaction since the activation_energy for abstraction of chlorine by a chlorine atom would be expected to be too high ; also it would be expected that * * f would compete very effectively with any impurities as a scavenger for * * f radicals .

(Clement Greenberg, "Collage" in his Art and...)

It was because of this chain-reaction as_much_as for any other reason - that_is , because of the growing independence of the planar unit in collage as a shape - that the identity of depicted_objects , or at_least parts of them , re-emerged in Braque 's and Picasso 's papiers colles and continued to remain more conspicuous there - but only as flattened silhouettes - than in any of their paintings done wholly in oil before the end of 1913 .

Related terms

chemical_reaction

2
[ noun ] (physics,nuclear physics) a self-sustaining nuclear reaction; a series of nuclear fissions in which neutrons released by splitting one atom leads to the splitting of others

Related terms

nuclear_reaction

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