Dominoes Are More Than Just a Toy
Dominoes are more than just a childhood toy. They’re an art form, a way of telling a story, and even a tool to improve employee performance. The domino effect is powerful, and it’s used for everything from building Rube Goldberg machines to celebrating historic events. Dominoes are even able to knock down things one-and-a-half times their size, as demonstrated in this video.
Lily Hevesh first started collecting dominoes at age 9, and her passion for the game turned into a full-time career after she started posting videos of her creations online. She’s worked on projects involving more than 300,000 dominoes, and her largest installations take several nail-biting minutes to fall—all because of the laws of physics. Hevesh says that while there are many factors that influence how a domino falls, the most important is gravity. This force pulls a domino toward Earth, causing it to smack into the next one and start a chain reaction.
Each domino has a number of pips—arranged in different arrangements on each half of the face—that correspond to its value. A domino that has the same number of pips on both sides is called a double, and a domino that has different numbers on each side is known as a combination domino. Dominoes are typically made from wood or plastic, but they’re also available in other materials, such as bone and ivory, or as clay tiles.
Regardless of their material, dominoes are generally rectangular in shape and have a smooth surface, with a square base. The faces of each domino are etched with an arrangement of pips, and each edge has a line that divides it into two equal parts. The upper part of a domino is marked with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, while the lower part is blank or has a design, such as hearts, stars, or circles.
Most domino games are positional; each player takes turns placing a domino tile on the table and positioning it so that its end touches an adjacent domino with a number showing. When a player cannot play a domino, they pass their turn and pick up an empty domino from the stock.
Once all the players have picked up their seven dominoes, they begin playing in sequence. The player who has the highest domino leads with that domino (which is called an opening double). Then each player continues in sequence until everyone has played all of their dominoes, or they can’t continue to do so.
In addition to the classic positional games, dominoes can be used for other types of play, such as blocking, where the goal is to prevent opponents from completing their turns. A popular block game is bergen, and other games include the Mexican train and chicken foot. Dominoes can also be used to teach kids counting and math skills.
Dominoes are more than just a childhood toy. They’re an art form, a way of telling a story, and even a tool to improve employee performance. The domino effect is powerful, and it’s used for everything from building Rube Goldberg machines to celebrating historic events. Dominoes are even able to knock down things one-and-a-half times their size, as demonstrated in this video. Lily Hevesh first started collecting dominoes at age 9, and her passion for the game turned into a full-time career after she started posting videos of her creations online. She’s worked on projects involving more than 300,000 dominoes, and her largest installations take several nail-biting minutes to fall—all because of the laws of physics. Hevesh says that while there are many factors that influence how a domino falls, the most important is gravity. This force pulls a domino toward Earth, causing it to smack into the next one and start a chain reaction. Each domino has a number of pips—arranged in different arrangements on each half of the face—that correspond to its value. A domino that has the same number of pips on both sides is called a double, and a domino that has different numbers on each side is known as a combination domino. Dominoes are typically made from wood or plastic, but they’re also available in other materials, such as bone and ivory, or as clay tiles. Regardless of their material, dominoes are generally rectangular in shape and have a smooth surface, with a square base. The faces of each domino are etched with an arrangement of pips, and each edge has a line that divides it into two equal parts. The upper part of a domino is marked with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, while the lower part is blank or has a design, such as hearts, stars, or circles. Most domino games are positional; each player takes turns placing a domino tile on the table and positioning it so that its end touches an adjacent domino with a number showing. When a player cannot play a domino, they pass their turn and pick up an empty domino from the stock. Once all the players have picked up their seven dominoes, they begin playing in sequence. The player who has the highest domino leads with that domino (which is called an opening double). Then each player continues in sequence until everyone has played all of their dominoes, or they can’t continue to do so. In addition to the classic positional games, dominoes can be used for other types of play, such as blocking, where the goal is to prevent opponents from completing their turns. A popular block game is bergen, and other games include the Mexican train and chicken foot. Dominoes can also be used to teach kids counting and math skills.