When a domino falls, it creates a chain reaction that is sometimes dramatic and sometimes dangerous. Dominoes are small rectangular blocks used as gaming pieces that are arranged in lines and angular patterns to form games played with them. They are also referred to as bones, men, or stones. Dominoes are similar to playing cards and dice in that they can be used to play a wide variety of games.
The most basic game in which dominoes are used involves a pair of players. Each player draws seven dominoes from a stack of 28 dominoes called a stock or boneyard. The player who draws the highest domino based on dots or blanks wins the first round. In the second round, the remaining dominoes are arranged on the table face down, and each player makes one play. The winner is the person who lays the last domino in the line before all the other players.
Hevesh has a lot of experience with arranging and staking dominoes. She has created stunning installations for movies, TV shows, and events, including a Katy Perry album launch. Her largest setups can take several nail-biting minutes to fall. But even the largest dominoes don’t move on their own unless someone else pushes them. This is because of something called inertia, a property that causes objects to resist motion when no outside force acts on them. The tiny nudge Hevesh needs to set in motion the first domino is just enough to tip it past its point of inertia, which then allows the energy stored in the piece to push on the next domino and so on until it’s all fallen.
Whether Hevesh is working on an intricate domino art installation or simply lining up some dominoes, she has to plan ahead. Each domino has a specific spot on its end that must match with the matching mark on an adjacent domino, or “pip.” To make sure the match is correct, she draws a design on paper before setting out her dominoes. The design can be simple or complex, a straight line or a curved shape, or a grid that forms pictures. She uses arrows to indicate the direction the dominoes will be moving, and to show how they are connected to each other.
She also plans how she will use each domino and what type of track it will go on, such as a circle or a pyramid. She also has to calculate how many dominoes she will need for a particular track and layout. Dominoes can be lined up in a grid that forms pictures, stacked to form walls, or even made into 3D structures like towers and pyramids.
For now, Domino’s labor shortage is making it difficult for the company to meet its delivery goals. But its leadership is taking steps to fix the problem by giving workers more incentive to work. If Domino’s can solve this issue, it will be in a better position to offer its thirty-minute guarantee.