Dominoes – A Writer’s ParadiseDominoes – A Writer’s Paradise
Dominoes are small rectangular blocks, usually wood or plastic, bearing a number of spots resembling those on dice on one side and either blank or identically patterned on the other. They are also called bones, pieces, men, or cards. They are used as gaming objects in games such as a variation on Blocks or the Draw Game.
The word domino is also used figuratively to refer to any object or event that is expected to have an effect of some sort. In a political context, it may refer to the domino effect—the theory that a change in one country will cause a chain reaction leading to another change in a greater or lesser degree elsewhere.
When it comes to writing, the image of dominoes tumbling down is a good metaphor for scenes that don’t move the plot forward or add tension. If you are a pantster (that is, you don’t make detailed outlines of your plot ahead of time), it’s easy to end up with scene dominoes that are at the wrong angle or don’t have enough logical impact on the scene ahead of them.
A domino is the most basic unit of a Dominoes game, and each domino has two matching ends that are joined together by a line or ridge. These ends are called “pips” or “dots.” Dominoes with the same number of pips on both sides are known as doubles, and a domino with a different number on each side is known as a single.
The simplest domino game consists of just one person taking turns placing tiles on the table so that they match up and touch. A player begins with a certain number of dominoes, for example, seven with a double-six set or nine with a double-nine set. When a player can’t place a tile, he or she passes, and the other players continue to play until a person can’t go any more.
In recent years, dominoes have been used in artistic displays that are sometimes more elaborate than a traditional set of blocks. Some artists create straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, or 3D structures like towers and pyramids.
Creating domino art requires skill and patience. It is important to plan out your design before starting, and it’s also helpful to have a clear idea of how many dominoes you’ll need. Then, you can calculate how much energy a given domino will need to fall, and make sure the other pieces of your design are positioned correctly to prevent them from hitting each other too hard or getting stuck in between the ones that are already in place. In the case of a large display, this planning can take several nail-biting minutes. For more information, see this video interview with an artist who uses science to create her amazing designs. University of Toronto physicist Stephen Morris agrees: “When you stand a domino upright, lifting against the pull of gravity, you store some potential energy based on its position. When the domino falls, that potential energy is converted to kinetic energy in the chain reaction, and it’s this energy that causes the dominoes to topple.”