When a domino falls, it starts a chain reaction that topples other pieces of the same kind. This is the principle behind a number of games that involve setting up lines or curved patterns of dominoes and then flicking them over to see how the whole chain falls. The resulting displays are sometimes quite stunning, and some people even make a living creating them for events like movie premieres or the launch of albums by celebrities.
Domino is also the name of a computer program that lets you model complex systems and predict outcomes. It can help you plan, visualize, and test new ideas that could have a positive impact on your organization. It can also automate repetitive tasks and reduce manual overhead so you can focus on what matters most.
A domino is a flat, thumb-sized block with an identifying pattern on one side and blank or identically patterned on the other. The identifying pattern is a line or ridge of from one to six dots (or pips) that look like those on a die. Each domino is marked with the number of pips it has, and 28 such pieces make up a complete set.
Standed upright, a domino has potential energy, which is the stored energy it has from being in its current position. When you knock over a domino, much of this energy is converted to kinetic energy, the energy of motion. Some of this energy is transmitted to the next domino, providing the push it needs to fall over and continue the chain reaction. And so on.
Lily Hevesh began collecting and playing with dominoes when she was 9 years old, and her collection soon grew out of control. She now spends her time creating mind-blowing domino installations, and has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers watching her work. Hevesh starts each installation with a theme or purpose in mind, and brainstorms images or words that she might want to use. She then creates a 3D layout of the piece, and tests out each section individually before putting it all together.
In the final product, each domino has a unique arrangement of spots, and there are no duplicates. Hevesh makes several versions of each section before filming it, and uses slow-motion to check that every domino is falling at exactly the right time.
Some of the most popular domino games are played by matching the ends of two tiles, with the winner being the player who can play a tile that matches an opposing one. The matching tiles must touch fully and be adjacent, and doubles are always placed cross-ways over each other. The game continues until either a player cannot lay another tile or the dominoes reach a point that no longer allows the players to proceed. Typically, the winning player is the first to score a certain number of points after a given number of rounds. Alternatively, the game can be ended when no player can score more points than a target number, which is typically 100 or 200.