How Dominoes Work

A domino is a flat rectangular block bearing one or more groups of spots (also called pips) and usually twice as long as it is wide. A set contains 28 such pieces. Dominoes are used to play various games of chance and skill. When the first domino falls, it sets off a chain reaction, with each succeeding piece falling after the last one is touched. Dominoes are also used in the arts to make patterns and designs, and are often painted or carved.

Lily Hevesh has been creating mind-blowing domino setups since she was 9. In her YouTube videos, she carefully arranges dominoes in straight or curved lines, then flicks the first one to watch them fall—all at once. She has created some of the largest domino installations ever, including a circular arrangement that held the world record for most dominoes in a single layout.

Hevesh has perfected her techniques through years of trial and error. She says the key to a domino setup is understanding physics. “Gravity is what makes my projects possible,” she says. When a domino is knocked over, it lands with force on its bottom, and this push energy transmits to the next domino, causing it to tilt and send a rush of energy down the line.

This domino effect mimics a nerve impulse traveling down an axon, Hevesh says. The energy that a domino has is stored in its pips, and when it tilts, the energy travels to the end of the axon to trigger the firing of a neuron. Once a neuron fires, it needs more energy to redistribute its ions and reestablish its resting state.

In business, Hevesh advises managers to use domino theory when deciding what tasks to tackle and in what order. The most important task gets top priority, she says, and it receives the full attention of the team until it is completed. Then, it takes less energy to move onto the next big task. She explains that this process is similar to the way Frederick Schwab turned Bethlehem Steel into a massive success. Schwab started by ranking tasks by importance, and then ordered the day’s work so that the most important project would be completed first.

A Domino in the Cloud

Domino is a platform for managing teams and projects, providing self-service access to tools and infrastructure that can run anywhere on any cloud. It’s available as a fully managed cloud service or on-premises.