Are dominoes just another toy or do they illustrate how physics impacts everyday life? Today’s Wonder of the Day highlights one physical force which causes dominoes to fall, thus knocking over more.
What factors influence how dominoes fall?
Lily Hevesh began playing dominoes at 9 years old and quickly fell in love with their addictive nature; even just flicking one off could start a chain reaction of falling pieces! She eventually began working professionally as a domino artist creating impressive displays for movies and events.
Hevesh has even contributed to breaking a Guinness World Records title for toppling dominoes in an organized circular arrangement, using gravity. Even her biggest projects require hours for completion – she credits gravity with making everything work smoothly!
A domino is a flat, thumb-sized rectangular block divided into two parts by a thin line and bearing anywhere from one to six pips, or dots. One set contains 28 dominoes; these have also been known by other names: bones, pieces, men tiles cards
In a domino game, the first player must place their piece by matching its value to that of an existing domino of the same color. When this occurs, that domino falls, prompting another player to place down a piece that matches up with its value on another domino of their color; once this process begins, it continues until all dominoes or pieces have been used up or players run out of dominoes to play with.
Dominoes can be made from many different materials, ranging from stone (like marble and granite), soapstone, wood (such as ash, elm or oak), metals such as brass or pewter and ceramic clay – although most dominoes today are constructed out of polymer (a type of plastic mixed with other ingredients to achieve color or texture), natural materials like bone or silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory or dark wood such as ebony with either black or white pips.
Even though many people understand how to play basic dominoes, their scientific makeup is far more intricate than meets the eye. Scientists have discovered that by starting with just one regular domino (around 2 inches tall) and stacking 18 more gradually by size-and-a-half increments, you will eventually have a tower of dominoes nearly as high as Leaning Tower of Pisa! Each domino can cause those on either side to grow their height too – creating an endless chain reaction which reaches as far as humanity itself!
