Whether you write your novel off the cuff or use a detailed outline, plotting a story still comes down to one question: What happens next? Using the concept of domino in your fiction is an effective way to make sure that the events that follow the scene you’re writing are natural and compelling.
A domino is a small rectangular wood or plastic block that has a blank side and either bears from one to six pips (or dots) resembling those on dice, or has a pattern of alternating black and white spots. There are many different games that can be played with dominoes; each has its own rules. Some have simple sets, while others require a large number of tiles. Often, the first tile laid down must be a double or triple. Then, all the other tiles must be laid end to end, so that each touching edge matches with a previous tile (one’s touch one’s, two’s touch two’s, etc.).
Most modern domino sets consist of 28 tiles—the maximum allowed by the rules of a given game. These sets are usually called “standard” or “double-nine,” although there are extended sets with more and even more tiles. These larger sets contain more and more unique combinations of ends, allowing them to be used in games with more than four players.
Dominoes are sometimes used to create art, such as curved lines and grids that form pictures when they fall. They can also be stacked to form towers and pyramids. The resulting works can be breathtaking and are sometimes displayed in museums.
For example, a Domino’s franchise in Florida created an incredible display of more than 200,000 dominoes, including a ten-foot waterfall. It took several nail-biting minutes for the dominoes to fall, but once they did, they left the audience in awe.
Hevesh, who has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, uses the principles of physics to design her mind-blowing installations. She makes test versions of each section of an installation before putting it all together. Using slow-motion videos, she checks for accuracy and makes adjustments as needed.
When a domino falls, much of its potential energy converts to kinetic energy—the force that pushes the next domino over. Then, the second domino’s kinetic energy carries on to the third, and so on until the final domino crashes down.
Dominoes have been around for centuries, and are now a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults. They are also a useful tool for learning the fundamentals of science and mathematics.
A physicist at the University of British Columbia recently demonstrated that dominoes can actually knock over objects about one-and-a-half times their own size. This is due to the fact that the smallest domino, which only has a single millimeter of surface area, can exert enough force to knock down an object almost three times its size. This is because a domino has a large number of edges and is very thin.