Learning About Dominoes
Domino is a board game played by two or more people that uses sets of dominoes. The pieces in a set are called “pips” or “dots,” and have identifying marks on one side and blank or identically patterned sides on the other. In a traditional European game, pips are inlaid or painted in contrasting colors on a top half of each tile and a bottom half made from bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (MOP), ivory or dark hardwood.
To play, each player draws a number of tiles and then places them on the table. They may then draw more tiles until they have a set that includes all the pips in their opponent’s set. If the players have enough pips to match, they can score points. In some variants, each player has sleeping dominoes, which they must pick when they can’t place a regular tile.
The first domino is the “main domino” that will be knocked over by the second, and so on. Its momentum propels the rest of the dominoes forward. This phenomenon is known as the domino effect.
Dominoes are also a great way to learn about the forces that move things. They’re a useful model to use when studying how energy transfers between objects and organisms, such as how the energy in a tennis ball bouncing off a wall is transmitted from the ball to the wall behind it.
Once you have the domino effect down, try this activity: Put some dominoes in the middle of a ruler and then flick them. Do you notice a difference in their speed? Can you make them fall in the opposite direction, or even reverse the direction they fall?
Now, try doing this again but with the same dominoes, but this time, let one of them drop. You can even put a small weight on the domino to make it drop faster, and then repeat that exercise until you find the right balance of weight and force to create the desired outcome.
If you have a little practice and patience, you can create some pretty mind-blowing domino designs yourself. The most fun part is designing the way that the dominoes will fall, but you can also plan out the entire track of the dominoes as well as the colors you want them to be.
When you’re ready to start designing, it’s best to start with a theme. For example, you could use straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, or even stacked domino walls.
Next, you’ll need to calculate how many dominoes of each color you’ll need for your design. For example, if you have a grid of dominoes that form a picture when they fall, you’ll need a certain number of red dominoes.
Once you’ve figured out the numbers, you can start to build your design. Hevesh likes to make test versions of each section of her installation to ensure that it works correctly, and then film the process in slow motion. This gives her a lot of flexibility in how she builds, and she can easily make corrections when necessary.
Domino is a board game played by two or more people that uses sets of dominoes. The pieces in a set are called “pips” or “dots,” and have identifying marks on one side and blank or identically patterned sides on the other. In a traditional European game, pips are inlaid or painted in contrasting colors on a top half of each tile and a bottom half made from bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (MOP), ivory or dark hardwood. To play, each player draws a number of tiles and then places them on the table. They may then draw more tiles until they have a set that includes all the pips in their opponent’s set. If the players have enough pips to match, they can score points. In some variants, each player has sleeping dominoes, which they must pick when they can’t place a regular tile. The first domino is the “main domino” that will be knocked over by the second, and so on. Its momentum propels the rest of the dominoes forward. This phenomenon is known as the domino effect. Dominoes are also a great way to learn about the forces that move things. They’re a useful model to use when studying how energy transfers between objects and organisms, such as how the energy in a tennis ball bouncing off a wall is transmitted from the ball to the wall behind it. Once you have the domino effect down, try this activity: Put some dominoes in the middle of a ruler and then flick them. Do you notice a difference in their speed? Can you make them fall in the opposite direction, or even reverse the direction they fall? Now, try doing this again but with the same dominoes, but this time, let one of them drop. You can even put a small weight on the domino to make it drop faster, and then repeat that exercise until you find the right balance of weight and force to create the desired outcome. If you have a little practice and patience, you can create some pretty mind-blowing domino designs yourself. The most fun part is designing the way that the dominoes will fall, but you can also plan out the entire track of the dominoes as well as the colors you want them to be. When you’re ready to start designing, it’s best to start with a theme. For example, you could use straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, or even stacked domino walls. Next, you’ll need to calculate how many dominoes of each color you’ll need for your design. For example, if you have a grid of dominoes that form a picture when they fall, you’ll need a certain number of red dominoes. Once you’ve figured out the numbers, you can start to build your design. Hevesh likes to make test versions of each section of her installation to ensure that it works correctly, and then film the process in slow motion. This gives her a lot of flexibility in how she builds, and she can easily make corrections when necessary.