Domino is a tile-based game that can be played with two or more people. Its popularity has led to many games based on domino. Some involve blocking other players’ play or scoring points by counting the number of pips (or “marks”) on adjacent dominoes. Some are adaptations of card games that were once popular to circumvent religious prohibitions against playing cards. Others help children develop their math skills.
The word domino is a portmanteau of two Latin words, dominium, meaning “power” or “authority,” and domini, meaning “feet.” Early versions of the game were simply pieces of wood with printed markings on them that could be stacked on one another. Later, they were made of ivory or bone, with contrasting black and white pips inlaid on them. Today’s dominoes, however, are usually made of polymer.
Most people think of dominoes as a type of table game, but they can also be used to make art. For example, people have used them to create straight lines of dominoes that flow around a curve or to make grids that form pictures when they fall. Others have created 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. There is even a Dominoes design contest where artists submit drawings of what they would like to see dominos do, and the winner is chosen by a panel of judges.
When someone tips a domino ever-so-slightly, it causes all the rest to topple over in a chain reaction. This has given rise to the term Domino effect, which can be applied to any action that leads to a cascade of consequences. The domino effect can be seen in real life, such as a terrorist attack that leads to the collapse of an economy or an entire continent.
But it can also be seen in the virtual world, where people use software to make complex domino arrangements that would be impossible to do by hand. The software is called Domino Designer, and it lets users plan out their creations on a computer screen and then print them out. The result is a stunning piece of art that shows off what can be done with this simple, elegantly designed game.
When Hevesh starts creating a mind-blowing domino arrangement, she follows her own version of the engineering-design process. She considers what kind of theme or purpose she wants the installation to have, then brainstorms images or words that might relate to it. From there, she works out the physics of how she can get the dominoes to move in that direction.
Hevesh says that she and her husband, Robert Morris, have a lot of fun designing and building their setups. But they don’t just enjoy the results of their hard work; they also love to share them with other people. That’s part of the reason that they started a company called Domino Designs to sell their creations. They also have a website where they post instructions for how to build different types of domino sets.