A domino is a small rectangular block with groups of spots on one side. Dominoes are used for playing a variety of games. They can be arranged in straight or curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, and 3D structures like towers and pyramids. Dominoes can be made from paper, wood, plastic, or even metal. The earliest dominoes were made from clay, but the most common ones today are made from glazed ceramic or porcelain.
Most of us know that if you knock over one domino in a line, the rest will topple as well. This is because the energy from the first domino spreads out and causes the others to shift, much like the way that a single nerve impulse can cause other neurons in your brain to fire.
Dominoes are often thought of as a metaphor for goal-setting and achievement. You can use the “domino effect” to motivate yourself by breaking a large goal into smaller tasks. Those smaller tasks can be ranked according to their importance and given your full attention until they are completed. If you complete these key tasks, you can then move on to the next steps in your plan.
Hevesh, who has more than 2 million YouTube followers, started playing with dominoes when she was 9. Her grandparents had a classic 28-tile set. She enjoyed setting them up in a row, flicking the first one, and then watching the entire line fall.
She now creates stunning domino setups for movies, TV shows, and events, including an album launch by Katy Perry. Her work has also been featured in a number of art exhibitions.
The physics behind the Domino Effect is actually quite simple. When you pick up a domino and stand it upright, the forces of gravity pull on its exposed ends and exert a force that is equal in magnitude to its weight. This gives the domino potential energy, or stored energy based on its position. When you knock over a domino, it reaches its peak of potential energy and then immediately converts this into kinetic energy, or the energy of motion. This kinetic energy flows through the domino chain, causing each successive domino to topple.
While most of the energy of a falling domino is converted into kinetic energy, some of it is dissipated as friction between each adjacent domino and the surface it sits on. This friction can be caused by the movement of a domino, or by its interaction with another domino as it slides over it.
Each domino has a unique number of spots on each end, called pips. Most traditional sets have six pips on each end, although other sets with different numbers of pips exist, and there are “extended” domino sets that have more than six pips on an end. Most players use these extended sets when they play “layout” games, which are a combination of blocking and scoring.