Domino is a strong and steady name that keeps its bearer mindful of the impact of every action. Its ties to the classic blocking game encourage a cautious rule of thumb, and the word’s roots in Latin dominus (“lord”) further emphasize its sense of power and control. Whether you’re dominating the boardroom or the bedroom, this is a confident, sophisticated name with a long tradition of excellence.
Domino (dominoes):
A family of games played with gaming pieces, each of which is a flat, thumb-sized rectangular block whose identity-bearing face is divided by a line or ridge into two square ends, one bearing from one to six dots or spots and the other blank. A domino with matching numbers on both ends is called a double and is the lightest of all types.
Lily Hevesh, 20, first started playing with dominoes at age 9, when her grandparents gave her the traditional 28-piece set. She loved setting up the tiles in straight or curved lines and flicking them over to watch them fall, one after another.
Now she has over 2 million YouTube subscribers who follow her domino art, which can include complex curved lines, grids that form pictures, and 3D structures like towers and pyramids. She spends hours planning out each project before starting to build. She even tests out each section with a few dominoes to make sure it works as intended.
She also finds that when she lays down a domino, it tends to trigger new habits and shift her belief system in subtle ways. For example, once she committed to making her bed each day, she found herself more willing to commit to other hygiene tasks. “It’s almost like you become the type of person who keeps a clean home,” she says. “It becomes a self-image thing.”
Domino’s powerful effects extend to the business world, where it is sometimes used as an analogy for cascading changes in behavior and beliefs that lead to success. This effect can be seen, for example, in the way that a single company can change the market, or in the domino effect that occurs when a patient gets sick from a germ picked up in a hospital—a phenomenon known as a nosocomial infection.
The physics of dominoes reveals the power of this phenomenon, which is why scientists are interested in figuring out how to replicate it. A 1983 study by University of British Columbia physicist Lorne Whitehead showed that a domino can knock down objects about one-and-a-half times its size, even though the actual force of the falling domino is tiny. Whitehead’s experiment was later repeated by other researchers, who found similar results. This research may help explain the true force of a domino, which could be used in applications such as constructing a stronger bridge or creating safer cars.