Tipping point

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For other uses, see Tipping point (disambiguation).

In sociology, a tipping point or angle of repose is the event of a previously rare phenomenon becoming rapidly and dramatically more common. The phrase was coined in its sociological use by Morton Grodzins, by analogy with the fact in physics that when a small amount of weight is added to a balanced object, it can cause it to suddenly and completely topple.

Grodzins studied integrating American neighborhoods in the early 1960s. He discovered that most of the white families would remain in the neighborhood so long as the comparative number of black families remained very small. But, at a certain point, when "one too many" black families arrived, the remaining white families would move out en masse in a process known as white flight. He called that moment the "tipping point." The idea was expanded and built upon by Nobel Prize-winner Thomas Schelling in 1972. A similar idea underlies Mark Granovetter's threshold model of collective behavior.

1 Other uses
2 In popular culture
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Other uses

The phrase is a common cliché, with uses often far removed from its theoretical underpinnings^{[citation needed]}. It has been applied to any process in which beyond a certain point, the rate at which the process proceeds increases dramatically. It has been applied in many fields from economics to epidemiology. It can also be compared to phase transition in physics or the propagation of populations in an unbalanced ecosystem.

Mathematically, the angle of repose may be seen as an inflection point. In control theory, the concept of positive feedback describes the same phenomenon, with the problem of balancing an inverted pendulum being the classic embodiment. The concept has been applied to the popular acceptance of new technologies. It was used to explain the success of VHS over Betamax, for instance.^{[citation needed]}