Snowball effect

A snowball effect[1] is a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself (an exacerbating feedback), becoming larger (graver, more serious), and also perhaps potentially more dangerous or disastrous (a vicious circle), though it might be beneficial instead (a virtuous circle).

In aerospace engineering, it is used to describe the multiplication effect in an original weight saving.

Hence less thrust is required and therefore smaller engines, resulting in a greater weight saving than the original reduction.

The startup process of a feedback electronic oscillator, when power to the circuit is switched on, is a technical application of the snowball effect.

Electronic noise is amplified by the oscillator circuit and returned to its input filtered to contain primarily the selected (desired) frequency, gradually getting stronger in each cycle, until a steady-state oscillation is established, when the circuit parameters satisfy the Barkhausen stability criterion.