Domino is a series of overlapping or interlocking units that form a larger structure. The term is also used to describe the effect of one small trigger or action, causing an entire chain reaction or cascade of events. It can be applied to a variety of situations, from political scenarios to business operations. A domino effect can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on how it is used.
In a business setting, a domino strategy can be used to grow a company by focusing on gaining one key client that will lead to additional clients over time. This can be accomplished by building an email list, writing articles on a blog or social media page, and conducting live events to promote the business. Once the client is gained, the rest of the pieces will fall into place.
Like playing cards, which they are a variant of, dominoes have a line or ridge running across the face, which divides them into two distinct sides. The identity-bearing side is usually blank or identically patterned, while the other is engraved with a number and an arrangement of dots. Some dominoes have both sides engraved with numbers and arranged in the same pattern.
A standard domino set has twenty-four tiles, with the most common being double-twelve and double-nine. The most common extended sets have more pips on each end of the dominoes, increasing the total number of possible dominoes.
Lily Hevesh’s grandparents gave her a classic 28-pack of dominoes when she was 9 years old, and she was hooked. She started collecting and creating domino art, which she posts on her YouTube channel, Hevesh5. In addition to straight lines and curved lines, she creates grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls, and even 3D structures like towers and pyramids.
Hevesh creates her artwork in sections, making sure each section works before putting it all together. She also films each test version in slow motion, allowing her to make precise corrections as needed. She focuses on the big, 3-D arrangements first, then adds flat arrangements and finally, lines of dominoes that connect the different sections.
Using dominoes in the classroom can help students understand the commutative property of addition. Depending on the arrangement of the dots on each end of a domino, there are only a limited number of addition equations that will work. For example, three dots plus four dots will never equal six, but five dots plus four will. This activity helps students understand that it doesn’t matter how the dots are arranged as long as they are the same.
The idiom domino effect can be applied to any situation in which one small trigger causes an entire chain reaction or cascade of events. In the case of politics, it is often used to illustrate how an event in one country can affect other countries. For instance, when Dwight Eisenhower was asked about America’s decision to offer aid to South Vietnam, he used the domino theory to demonstrate how Communism would spread throughout Asia. The idiom has since become commonly used in everyday speech and literature.