As a child, Lily Hevesh enjoyed the satisfaction of setting up a long line of dominoes in a curved or straight line, flicking one and watching it cause the rest to fall. Now 20, Hevesh has turned her hobby into a profession as a domino artist, creating elaborate setups for movies, TV shows and events such as an album launch for Katy Perry. She has even set a world record with her 2,700-piece setup. She has become a YouTube sensation with her videos of domino creations, and her YouTube channel, Hevesh5, has more than 2 million subscribers.
Like playing cards, of which they are a variant, dominoes have a rectangular face with a pattern of dots or pips on one side and are blank or identically patterned on the other. The pips on the top of the dominoes are called the pip line, and they indicate the number of dots on the open end of a particular tile. The pips are not the same as those on dice, and some dominoes have more than six pip lines.
Many types of domino games exist, and the rules for a game may vary slightly from one country to the next. However, most games fit into four categories: dominoes with a line of play, blocking games, scoring games and round games. In all of these games, a player draws the number of tiles that he or she is permitted to take at the start of the game from a stock, adds them to the set of tiles he or she already has in hand, and then makes a play.
If a player plays a domino out of turn, he or she must either recall the tile, or if it is a double and not a spinner, it must be placed across the end of the existing chain, as perpendicular to the double touching the end of the line of play. The other domino played to the double must then be placed across the top of the line of play.
The Domino Effect is the theory that if you make one positive change in your life, it will prompt a cascade of similar changes. For example, when a person begins exercising regularly, this often leads to eating healthier and losing weight. When a person begins a new job, it can cause him or her to spend more time at work and less time on sedentary activities such as watching television and mindlessly eating.
Hevesh uses the Domino Effect in her videos by setting up a domino track, which includes a set of arrows showing the way the dominoes will fall, and then creating an intricate arrangement of tiles that will follow the tracks. She explains how she does this by explaining the process of how the dominoes fall and by demonstrating with her hands the effect that gravity has on each individual tile. She also describes the force of friction and a domino’s inertia.