Domino is a small rectangular block, usually wood or plastic, marked by dots resembling those on dice. It is a game that consists of placing dominoes in a straight or curved line and then flicking the first one to cause them all to fall. The term has also come to refer to a series of events in which each event influences and causes the next, as in “the domino effect.”
Dominoes are an interesting tool to use for teaching children how to count and build patterns. They are also useful for demonstrating the concept of momentum and how a domino’s position in a line can influence its velocity when it is flipped over. In fact, Lily Hevesh, a 20-year-old professional domino artist who has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, is famous for her spectacular domino setups that she creates for movies, TV shows and even events, such as the recent album launch of Katy Perry.
The first and last dominoes are usually set up side by side, and the remaining dominoes are arranged in a row or circle around them. Then, by placing a single domino on top of another, the dominoes in a row or circle are made to fall down in a neat cascade.
In addition to the traditional blocking and scoring games, there are also many other types of domino games. Most of them involve drawing and counting tiles, and some require a matching number of adjacent pips or a certain total to be reached. The most common sets have a maximum of 28 dominoes, with the pips being printed in such a way that they can match on all four sides of a double domino. However, large domino sets with more pips on each end are available.
Physicist Stephen Morris, who has studied dominoes for his PhD thesis, says that when a domino is standing upright, it has potential energy, or stored energy based on its position. But when you tip a domino ever so slightly, that potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, which causes the domino to fall and then triggers the next domino to fall. The process continues until all the dominoes have fallen.
There are several factors that influence how a domino falls when tapped, including the mass of each domino, its shape and the angle at which it is being tipped. Other variables include friction and temperature.
A domino is a great analogy for leadership, which is the ability to motivate and lead a team. The idea behind the domino theory is that when you have a good leader, all other pieces will fall into place. The best examples of leaders are those who can inspire a team to reach its full potential, which is the reason for some of the popular business books written on the subject of leadership.
A common example of the domino effect is a hospital infection, which can be caused by something as simple as an unwashed finger touching a patient. These infections are known as nosocomial infections, and they can spread rapidly amongst the patients in a hospital. In fact, they can be so widespread that they affect the entire healthcare system.
