Domino is a game of skill that allows you to create artistic designs with the simple tipping of one piece. You can set up straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, and even 3D structures like towers and pyramids. The rules of domino are easy to learn and once you have the basics down, you can add your own style and creativity. You can use this game to teach kids about geometry, math, and science.
The history of domino is unclear but it seems to have arrived in Britain from Italy and France by the late 18th Century, possibly via French prisoners of war. It was popular in the inns and taverns of the day. In a domino game, each player takes turns placing one or more dominoes edge to edge on the floor, either flat or stacked. They must be arranged so that the ends of the dominoes match, or “touch.” The number of matching ends is called the rank or value of the domino.
Unlike playing cards, which have numbers on each face, dominoes have a central line that divides them visually into two squares with identifying marks (called pips) on each side. A domino may have either all pips or none, but the most common variety has from three to six pips on each half of the face. This means that a domino has a rank of three, five, or seven.
The earliest dominoes were made of wood and had one to six pips on each half of their faces. Later, they were made of paper and had dots or a tin-leaf design. These were essentially the same as the Western dominoes we know today, although they were much larger. In fact, early “dominoes” were really just adaptations of card games that could be played in places where religious prohibitions against the use of cards prohibited the playing of normal card games.
When a domino is tipped just so, it converts some of its potential energy to kinetic energy, the energy of motion, which causes it to knock over a few other pieces that would have fallen otherwise. This is called the Domino Effect.
Hevesh has a unique talent for creating domino setups that are both impressive and educational. Her process begins with a theme or purpose, and she brainstorms images or words that might go with it. Next, she tests a few sections of her layout to make sure that they work well together. Once she is happy with the results of her test, she begins putting them all together. She starts with the biggest 3-D sections, then she builds in flat arrangements.
As Hevesh works on her mind-blowing domino sets, it is as if she is a sculptor using clay, tweezers, and the force of gravity to create art. Her final results are more than just a cool trick, though; she has created a way to teach physics without making the students feel like they’re learning math or science.