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A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. It is a self-amplifying chain of events.
- The neutron-fission chain reaction: a neutron plus a fissionable atom causes a fission resulting in a larger number of neutrons than was consumed in the initial reaction.
- Chemical example, every step of H2 + Cl2 chain reaction consumes one molecule of H2 or Cl2, one free radical H· or Cl· producing one HCl molecule and another free radical.
- Electron avalanche process: Collisions of free electrons in a strong electric field forming "new" electrons to undergo the same process in successive cycles.
See also
- Nuclear chain reaction
- Polymerase chain reaction
- Markov chain
- Rube Goldberg machine
- Causality
- Butterfly effect
- Thermal runaway
- Cascading failure
References
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