Domino is a game that involves arranging tiles on end in long lines. When the first tile is tipped over, it causes the next domino to tip and so on, creating complex designs that are often impressive to watch. The term “domino effect” is also used to describe a chain reaction that leads to unexpected consequences. It can be applied to any situation where one event triggers many others.
In the world of art, Hevesh makes her living creating mind-blowing domino installations for movies and TV shows, as well as events like Katy Perry’s album launch. Her creations can be enormous, involving thousands of dominoes that take several nail-biting minutes to fall after she sets them up. But how does she do it? Hevesh says her process is much like an engineering-design project. She starts with a theme or purpose, then brainstorms images or words she might want to use in the design. From there, she creates a detailed plan and carefully selects the right materials.
Afterward, she meticulously places each domino in just the right place. Each domino has a natural inertia that resists motion until a force, such as a nudge or the slightest touch, causes it to slide or push. Once that happens, it transforms into kinetic energy, the energy of motion (see Converting Energy). Then, some of that kinetic energy is transmitted to the next domino, providing the push needed to knock it over. And so on, until all of the dominoes fall, according to the laws of physics.
While some people only think of domino as a fun way to play games, it has also been used in many practical applications, including making roads and railways and building bridges and skyscrapers. In fact, some of the oldest examples of dominoes are structures built by Roman engineers, who used them to build aqueducts.
The modern domino system was developed in the mid-18th century in Italy and France, and brought to England by French prisoners toward the end of that period. Today, it is mostly used to play positional games, in which each player places a domino edge-to-edge against another in such a way that the adjacent faces are either identical or form some specified total.
Dominoes are normally twice as long as they are wide and have a line in the middle to divide them visually into two squares, called ends. The top of each end is marked with an arrangement of spots or “pips” similar to the ones on a die, while the bottom has no markings and is blank. The value of a domino is the sum of the numbers of its pips, with a domino having a higher value than a lower-valued one that has more or all of its pips.
The early success of Domino’s was driven by a strategic focus on location. Monaghan emphasized putting pizza shops near college campuses, where he knew his target audience liked to go. This strategy helped him grow from a single store in Ypsilanti to over 200 locations by 1978.