The Art of Dominos
A domino is a small rectangular block with one or more dots, like those on dice. A set of these pieces is used to play a game in which the players try to get all of them lined up on the ends of a line already formed, so that they will all fall when a single piece on the end is pushed. A domino can also be a person, referring to someone who is in charge or who has a lot of power.
Dominos, the pizza chain, is trying to use technology to keep up with consumer trends in food delivery. Its most recent initiative is to integrate its ordering platform with Apple’s in-car system, allowing customers to order their pizza directly from their car dashboard. The company is also experimenting with robot delivery and drones to increase its delivery efficiency.
Hevesh, a domino artist with more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, has a knack for creating stunning displays of her creations. She’s worked on projects that take several nail-biting minutes for all of the dominoes to fall, and her largest setups can even reach up to 300,000 dominoes.
She’s able to achieve these amazing designs through what she calls “domino engineering.” The secret is in knowing exactly how to place each domino so that the next one will push on it just the right amount when it gets hit. Hevesh is able to do this by drawing out her track before beginning construction. She plans out the entire layout, including arrows that indicate the direction in which each domino should fall.
The first domino will have inertia, meaning that it will resist movement until there is enough force to overcome that resistance. When the second domino is pushed, however, it will create a force that will be transmitted to the rest of the dominoes in the line. The result will be a chain reaction that will cause them all to fall.
While we might think of dominoes as a recreational pastime, they have also been used to teach children math and science. Most sets of dominoes are made of polymer material, but some are made from different natural materials such as bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, and ebony. These types of sets have a more classic look and are usually more expensive than polymer sets. Also, they often have a heavier weight and are more difficult to break than polymer sets. They may also have pips that are inlaid or painted, which can make it easier to read the numbers on them.
A domino effect can be positive or negative, depending on what is being influenced. It can be a good thing, such as when a business decision causes other companies to follow suit and increase their own sales. It can also be a bad thing, such as when a political leader uses a speech to instigate a coup. When you are writing a story, it’s important to be careful how you set up your dominoes so that they will all fall smoothly and build up until the climax.