Dominoes are more than just a game—they’re also a powerful tool. In this week’s Wonder of the Day, we’ll take a look at how domino can help people build stronger communities and businesses. We’ll also find out how the simple domino effect can actually knock down objects one-and-a-half times their size!
You’ve probably seen a domino set or two in person, but have you ever considered how amazing these little black and white rectangles really are? Dominoes are more than just a fun way to pass the time—they’re a great tool for learning and growing.
Whether you use them to play games or line them up in long rows, dominoes are one of the world’s most fascinating objects. In fact, they’re so incredibly powerful that they can even topple cars!
A domino is any of 28 tiles that make up a domino set. Each tile has an identifying mark, usually an arrangement of spots, on one side and is blank or identically patterned on the other. The identity-bearing sides are divided by a line or ridge into squares, which can be labeled with numbers, letters, or symbols. Some squares are even engraved with mathematical formulas, making them an essential part of the Domino Theory.
Like dice or playing cards, dominoes are used to play a wide variety of games. They’re most commonly played as positional games, where a player places a domino edge to edge against another in such a way that the adjacent faces are either identical (e.g., 5 to 5) or form some specified total. In addition, a domino may be used to score points in a game.
Hevesh is a world-renowned domino artist who has designed some truly mind-blowing displays. She follows a version of the engineering-design process when creating her installations. She starts by considering the theme or purpose of the installation and brainstorming images or words that might be appropriate. Then, she tests out the individual sections of the display. Once she’s sure that each section works independently, Hevesh puts them together in an order that makes sense for the overall display. She begins with the biggest 3-D sections, followed by flat arrangements and finally the lines of dominoes that connect them all together.
As a former bodyguard to the genius scientist Milo Thurman, the mutant Domino (Neena Dugdale) was drawn into more social circles. Her relationship with Thurman was short-lived, as an attack by A.I.M. forced him into deeper government cover. She later joined the Six Pack and fought alongside the time-traveling mutant Cable (Nathan Summers). In her latest mission, she teamed up with fellow mercenary Grizzly and Hammer to assist Storm’s security task force on the island of Utopia. She later linked up with X-Force and had a brief romance with Colossus before being captured by the rogue CIA agent Ekatarina Gryaznova. Her neural inhibitor created synaptical static that slowed her reflexes and made her actions erratic. She eventually broke up with Cable and returned to her mercenary ways.