Dominoes are black and white rectangles that some children like to line up in long rows, then knock down. But these dominoes have a lot more potential energy than most people realize. A tiny nudge is enough to send them rolling across the table, creating a chain reaction that can reach heights of up to three feet. Today’s Wonder of the Day explores this phenomenon, which is called the domino effect.
Almost anyone can enjoy playing with a domino set, but some people take it to a new level and create spectacular art using these little squares of cardboard. One woman, known online as Hevesh5, has built up a huge following for her creative domino art creations. She has worked on projects for movies and events, and she once helped to set a Guinness record for the largest domino layout. Some of her works involve thousands of dominoes, which can take several nail-biting minutes to fall. Hevesh makes her elaborate domino arrangements by hand, but she also uses a computer program to plan out the layout.
The word domino comes from the Italian and French words for “flip,” which is what happens when a single piece starts to topple other pieces in its row. A typical set of western dominoes contains 28 pieces, but larger sets are available for games that require more tiles. Dominoes are normally twice as long as they are wide, and each has a ridge or line that divides it visually into two squares, called ends. One of these squares has a pattern of spots, or pips, that identify the piece; the other is blank or identically patterned. The sum of the pips on the open end(s) determines the value of the domino, which can range from six pips to none at all.
Most domino games are played with positional dominoes, which means that each player places a domino edge to edge against another domino. Each domino must match up with a matching edge of the adjacent piece (unless it is a double, which may be placed cross-ways). When this chain is complete, it is ready to be knocked over. The first player to do so wins the game.
Other types of domino play include blocking games, which involve emptying out one’s hand while preventing opponents from laying more tiles, and scoring games, which determine points by counting the number of pips in a losing player’s remaining dominoes. In a skillful variant of the latter, players aim to be the first to reach a certain total, often 61.
In fiction and nonfiction, writers use the idea of a domino effect to illustrate a point or to develop a scene. A domino effect in writing might consist of a character’s action leading naturally to the next scene in a story or an argument. In business, a domino effect might be the effect of one event or decision leading to a cascade of events that influences other events in a similar way.