Domino is a small, flat, rectangular block used as a gaming object. Also known as bones, men, or stones, the pieces are arranged to form a line or shape and then knocked over to initiate a chain reaction. The earliest dominoes were made from wood but are now typically plastic, ceramic, or even metal. There are many different ways to play dominoes, including scoring games where players count the pips on the exposed ends of the dominoes and blocking games where players try to prevent opponents from making progress.
Dominoes are a favorite childhood toy of many people. Some of the more popular games involve laying dominoes end to end, with matching sides touching, in a line. Each domino has a set of numbers on one face that indicates its rank, and the ends of the dominoes may be either blank or identically patterned to match those on the other end of the tile.
When Domino’s founder, Tom Brandon, saw a decline in his company’s earnings and customer satisfaction, he immediately sought out new ways to make improvements. He believed that it was important to listen to the concerns of employees, and he implemented changes such as a relaxed dress code and leadership training programs. This approach, along with a focus on quality and consistency, helped Domino’s return to profitability in a matter of weeks.
As a young child, Lily Hevesh was obsessed with playing with her family’s classic 28-piece set of dominoes. She loved arranging the dominoes into a straight or curved line and flicking them to watch them tumble one by one. In the years that followed, Hevesh’s passion for creating mind-blowing domino art evolved into a career. She now creates massive, intricate domino setups for films, TV shows, and events, including a recent album launch for Katy Perry. Her YouTube channel, Hevesh5, has more than 2 million subscribers.
Despite the fact that Hevesh is not an engineer, she says that when it comes to creating her intricate designs, science plays a major role. “When a domino is first set, it has potential energy because it is standing up,” she explains. “When you push on it, that potential energy turns into kinetic energy and some of that is transmitted to the next domino.”
When the second domino hits the first, it has enough kinetic energy to knock it over as well, thus starting a chain reaction. As the chain of dominoes grows, so does the momentum, which reaches a point where it is no longer possible for any domino to resist falling. Then, the law of inertia takes over: The force of gravity pulls the top of the domino toward Earth, and the entire setup crashes to the ground. This process occurs over and over again until the last domino falls. Watch this video to see Hevesh’s amazing creations in action!