Domino is a small rectangular block used for gaming. It is marked by spots resembling those on dice, and can be used in a wide variety of games to knock over other dominoes. A set consists of 28 dominoes, and each end is either blank or marked by three or more dots. Dominoes are cousins to playing cards and dice, and they have been around for a long time.
Dominoes are also used to create artistic pieces such as a line of stacked squares or a grid that forms a picture when it falls. The art can be as simple or complex as the builder wishes. Some domino artists have built 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. Dominoes can also be arranged in a linear fashion to form straight lines.
Most domino games involve emptying one’s hand while blocking opponents’ play. Some games, such as bergen and muggins, allow players to score points by counting the number of pips in the losing player’s hands. Some of the most popular domino games are educational in nature and help children learn numbers and math skills.
When a domino is tipped, it releases energy that causes the next domino to tip and then the next until all of them have fallen over. This is the basis of the famous domino effect, where one event triggers a chain reaction of events that ultimately leads to much larger—and often catastrophic—consequences.
Dominoes have become so popular that some people organize domino shows where builders set up dazzling displays of hundreds or thousands of dominoes that eventually fall with the slightest nudge from one. Some of these domino shows are televised and attract crowds of avid fans.
The way Hevesh sets up her mind-blowing domino displays is not unlike how a writer plots a story. Hevesh starts by considering the theme or purpose of an installation and brainstorming images that might go with it. Then she calculates how many dominoes are needed to achieve her design, and draws a line graph showing the way the dominoes should be arranged.
She tests each section of the display and even films the test, which allows her to make precise corrections before assembling the whole installation. This careful testing helps Hevesh ensure that each domino will fall the way she wants it to.
In the same way, writers carefully plot their stories to ensure that each scene logically connects to the scene before it and moves the hero closer or farther away from the goal. This process can be painful, especially when the hero must go back and reread earlier scenes to determine how they should fall.
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