Domino is a small rectangular block of wood or plastic, with one side blank and the other bearing from one to six pips resembling those on dice. It is used to play a variety of games. It may be arranged in lines or angular patterns to form such structures as pyramids, castles, and arches. A domino set usually contains 28 such pieces. A skillful player can be a dominant force in a game. The word is also applied to a collection of such blocks or to a sequence of events expected to lead logically to an outcome, as in the Domino Theory of world history. It may also refer to:
Many children enjoy setting up dominoes in straight or curved lines and flicking the first domino to fall over, triggering the rest of the line to follow suit. The resulting pattern can be colorful and intriguing. Other people use Dominoes as toys for building or creating sculptures, such as houses or cars. Some artists create awe-inspiring works of art using nothing more than a few dominoes.
Lily Hevesh, a sculptor and artist, created a rainbow spiral out of 12,000 dominoes. This amazing artwork illustrates how the domino effect can be harnessed for positive social change. The same concept can be applied to the creative process of writing a story or novel.
In modern times, the name Domino has maintained authoritative undertones and is used for various businesses, organizations, and products that wish to project a sense of leadership or expertise. The name has been used for the founder of Domino’s Pizza, which has 501 outlets in the United Kingdom, and to describe a system for delivering pizza by drone.
Whether you are planning your next business plan or plotting the latest chapter of your novel, the Domino effect can help ensure that what you want to happen actually does. Understanding the domino effect will help you achieve your goals and make an impact on the world around you.
Domino Effect
A Domino Effect occurs when a single event triggers a chain reaction that leads to other events, resulting in a “domino effect.” The term was coined by an engineer named John von Neumann in the 1930s. He compared the dynamics of a domino to those of a game of Chinese checkers, in which each piece has a particular value and moves in response to each other as they are moved.
In a domino game, each player has seven dominoes in his or her hand. The first player starts by picking a domino from the stock, and the players take turns playing matching pairs of dominoes until one of them has an opening double. The heaviest double is called the “opening” double, and the player who has this tile begins the play by placing it down on the table. The other players then try to match this opening double with their own tiles until one player has a pair.
The player who successfully plays a pair wins the hand. If a player cannot play his or her tiles, that player passes. The winner scores points by being the first to reach a specific number, often 61. One point is scored for each open end that matches a domino played earlier in the same hand.
