Dominoes are small rectangular blocks of wood or plastic that are marked with dots resembling those on dice. They are used in a variety of games to form lines or shapes, or to knock down other dominoes by pushing on them. Dominoes can also be used to make patterns and artwork. They have many nicknames including bones, cards, tiles, tickets, spinners, and stones.
The first Domino’s opened in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1967. Founder Tom Monaghan’s strategy for success included putting pizza joints near college campuses. He believed that young people wanted to order and receive their food quickly. Domino’s grew quickly and soon was a nationwide company.
Domino’s is a great example of a business that listens to its customers. When the company was in trouble in the early 1990s, its former CEO David Brandon put a series of new policies into place that focused on listening to employees. This included relaxed dress codes and a new leadership training program. He also spoke directly with employees to find out what they were unhappy about. These changes helped Domino’s turn things around quickly.
In a game of domino, players try to build chains of dominoes touching each other and exposing numbers at both ends. If the uncovered numbers total any number multiple of five, a player wins.
To play, each person takes turns choosing a domino from the boneyard (a collection of shuffled dominoes). A player must then place this domino onto the table so that it touches one end of another domino in the chain or to the edge of the board. If they cannot make a play, they pass their turn to the next player.
The last player to touch a domino that exposes a number at both ends wins the round. Usually, the first player to do this scores that round’s points. In some cases, the player who reaches a certain number of points over a set amount of rounds wins the game.
Stephen Morris, a physicist at the University of Toronto, says that standing a domino upright gives it potential energy. This energy is based on the fact that it resists the force of gravity. When a domino falls, however, much of this potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, or the energy of motion. This energy pushes on the next domino, which in turn pushes on the next. And so on, until the entire domino chain collapses.
Hevesh, a sculptor and artist who creates massive domino installations, tests the parts of her work before assembling them together. She often films her tests to see how they are working in slow motion. She explains that this allows her to make precise adjustments. She adds that it’s very important to have the right tools when building a domino art installation. The wrong tool can ruin the piece or even break it. Hevesh also recommends that people start with the largest 3-D sections first. By using this technique, they can make sure the pieces are properly aligned before moving on to smaller 2-D arrangements and then lines of dominoes.
