The word domino means “falling one after the other.” It’s also the name of a popular game, in which players place small squares or “tiles” on the edge of an empty board. Each tile has a number of spots, or “pips,” arranged in a circle around the edge. The pips are normally colored, and the rest of the surface is either blank or identically patterned. Most domino sets have 28 tiles—double-sixes and eight pips—though larger sets are sometimes used, especially for scoring games.
The most common game uses a double-six set. Each player draws seven tiles from the stock, or boneyard, and places them on-edge in front of him or her. Then each player adds a tile to an end of those already placed, building up a chain of dominoes. Whenever an opponent’s tile lands on top of this chain, it falls and the player scores points. The winning player then takes the other player’s remaining tiles.
Dominoes may be placed side-by-side to form a line, like a game of tic-tac-toe. But they’re often used to create more elaborate arrangements. Some artists build massive dominoes with hundreds of pieces and use them to create incredible domino effects, which they then perform for audiences. There are even television shows in which a team of domino experts compete to see who can build the largest and most complex domino chain.
Some of the most famous domino effect stories involve the destruction of buildings or other large structures. For example, in 1865, British soldiers used a domino set to build a chain reaction that collapsed a large part of the Great White House in Washington, D.C.
This article is about a particular kind of domino, but it’s also about how these small, rectangular blocks can help us understand what’s going on in the world around us. The domino theory is a theory about what causes events to occur in our lives, based on the idea that one event triggers another—like a domino falling from an edge and striking its neighbors, eventually causing them all to fall.
The domino effect is also an idea that we can use in our writing. When a story or an essay requires multiple scenes, each scene can be compared to a domino that influences the next one. The dominoes in the scene work together to advance the plot, the theme, or the argument.
Whether it’s pizza delivery or a chain of restaurants, Domino’s has spent years focused on cutting-edge technology. And its new Innovation Garage is a space for teams to collaborate on, develop, and test ideas for the future of the company’s brands.