Dominoes are a type of game that involves stacking tiles. They are similar to playing cards, but instead of having a standard suit and number of pips (which may be arranged in various ways), each tile is marked with a number of spots. This means that the number of unique pieces in a set can vary widely from one set to the next, and there are many different kinds of domino games.
The traditional domino set has 28 tiles that are arranged in a “double-six” format. This is the basic game of dominoes, and it is often played with two people. The game is based on a simple mathematical concept: If you have one domino that has a matching number of spots on each end, you can match that to any other domino, and the player with the best combination wins.
When a domino falls, it stores some of its potential energy as kinetic energy, the energy of motion. This energy is transmitted to the next domino, causing it to fall. The process continues until the last domino is knocked over.
What’s more, according to Stephen Morris, a physicist at the University of Toronto, the force of gravity plays a big role in dominoes’ ability to fall. “If you pick up a domino and stand it upright, it’s going to have a lot of inertia, because it’s trying to resist the pull of gravity.”
Hevesh builds these mind-blowing installations by following a version of the engineering-design process. She brainstorms a theme or purpose for the design, then plans out what kinds of domino arrangements she wants to include. These might be grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked domino walls, or 3-D structures like towers and pyramids.
She also calculates how many dominoes of each color she needs before she starts building. She then makes tests of each section of the installation to make sure it works before she puts it together.
As she tests, she films her work in slow motion so she can make precise adjustments when something doesn’t go right. This is important for a number of reasons:
Once she’s finished testing the sections, Hevesh will start putting them together. She’ll start with the largest 3-D pieces first, and then add smaller flat arrangements and lines of dominoes that connect all the sections together.
Before she reaches the final step of putting all the dominoes together, Hevesh will make sure that everything is working properly by filming her work in slow motion again. This will help her make any changes that need to be made, so the dominoes don’t come apart while she’s assembling them.
While it’s easy to get distracted by new ideas, the key is to focus on one habit at a time. Once you’ve mastered one, you can easily incorporate it into the other ones. If you don’t follow this rule, your progress will be limited.