Domino toppling refers to the process of arranging dominoes in a sequential layout, commonly known as a domino run, and subsequently knocking over the first domino in the sequence. This action triggers a chain reaction, where each domino in turn falls into the next, resulting in a cascading effect termed the domino effect.
Competitions in which two or more players aim to be the first to knock down all their arranged dominoes may be referred to as a domino rally. When domino toppling is performed for an audience, it is typically called a domino show.
Domino toppling involves the arrangement of dominoes in a standing position to create patterns and sequences, known as a domino run. Builders can utilize dominoes of various colors to generate designs and images, with some dominoes exhibiting different colors on their front and back surfaces. This allows for a visual contrast before and after the dominoes are toppled.
Techniques employed in domino toppling may include three-dimensional structures, spiral formations, letter shapes, and the integration of Rube Goldberg machines. Most often, only the first domino is manually knocked over to initiate the sequence, with subsequent dominoes advised to fall in succession through the chain reaction. Large-scale arrangements can consist of millions of dominoes, designed to take several minutes or even hours to complete their fall.
To manage the risk of premature toppling, builders may incorporate special blockages, known as firebreaks, at regular intervals within the arrangement. These firebreaks serve to contain the collapse to specific sections, allowing for the removal of blocks without damaging surrounding tiles.
Pressman Toys previously produced a product called Domino Rally, which included tiles and mechanical devices designed for creating domino toppling displays.
The first public domino shows were organized by Bob Speca, Jr. from Broomall, Pennsylvania, in the United States. In 1976, at the age of 18, he established the first official world record for the most dominoes toppled in a chain reaction, by setting up and toppling down 11,111 pieces. [1] That event, and his appearance on The Tonight Show [2] triggered a domino-toppling craze, leading to a long lasting competition among domino-builders about the world record. In 1984, Klaus Friedrich from Germany was the last person to set up a new domino-toppling world record single-handedly. [3] In that same year student film makers Sheri Herman and Bonnie Cutler from Temple University produced and directed the film And They All Fall Down, showcasing Speca's talents. [4] The film is part of the permanent collection of the Berlin Film Museum.
On June 9, 1979, British engineer Michael Cairney set a Guinness World Record by toppling 169,573 dominoes in Poughkeepsie, New York, during the World Domino Spectacular, which benefited the National Hemophilia Association. After fifteen days of set-up, The World Domino Spectacular launched with over 30 domino stunts, Cairney and his all volunteer team cheered as the 22,000 square foot progressive topple crossed mini bridges, triggered a rocket, toppled spirals, knocked over a twenty foot domino peacock design and made the first domino-enabled international phone call to confirm the world record. Stunt engineer Bruce Duffy designed the World Domino Spectacular Stunt #22 which consisted of 53 flags representing the members of the World Federation of Hemophilia.
Since 1986, the Netherlands has hosted an annual domino-toppling exhibition known as Domino Day. On November 18, 2005, a team from Weijers Domino Productions knocked over 4 million dominoes at this event. During the 2008 Domino Day, held on November 14, the same team aimed to set ten records, including: [5]
This record attempt was held in the WTC Expo hall in Leeuwarden. The artist who toppled the first stone was the Finnish acrobat Salima Peippo.
A year later, in 2009, the world record of most dominoes toppled in one chain reaction was set to be 4,491,863 in Leeuwarden.
In 1998, the Netherlands hosted a domino toppling exhibition called Domino D-Day, it was renamed Domino Day, following the initial 1998 event. It ran annually until 2009, and has been suspended due to financial and administrative issues since 2010. Domino Day made popular the concept of the "Builder's Challenge" wherein the build team must place dominoes into the project once the topple has already begun in order to complete the build in a "race against the clock" type challenge.
In 2006, Griness introduced a corporate team-building challenge featuring domino toppling. [6] On November 9, 2009, giant domino tiles were toppled in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with former Polish president and Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa initiating the toppling.
Since 2015, The Incredible Science Machine, an international event involving multiple teams, has been held annually in the United States. As of November 2017, it held the record for the most dominoes toppled in America, totaling just under 250,000. [7]
The phenomenon of domino toppling has theoretical implications in fields such as amplification, digital signal processing, and information processing. This has led to speculation about the potential for constructing domino-based computers. Also, dominoes are also commonly used as components in Rube Goldberg machines. [8]
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events.
Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of spots or is blank. The backs of the tiles in a set are indistinguishable, either blank or having some common design. The gaming pieces make up a domino set, sometimes called a deck or pack. The traditional European domino set consists of 28 tiles, also known as pieces, bones, rocks, stones, men, cards or just dominoes, featuring all combinations of spot counts between zero and six. A domino set is a generic gaming device, similar to playing cards or dice, in that a variety of games can be played with a set. Another form of entertainment using domino pieces is the practice of domino toppling.
A domino effect is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a series of similar or related events, a form of chain reaction. The term is an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events where the time between successive events is relatively short. The term can be used literally or metaphorically.
Pai gow is a Chinese gambling game, played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. It is played in major casinos in China ; the United States ; Canada ; Australia; and New Zealand.
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, better known as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction–type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and (impractically) overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.
A deterministic system is a conceptual model of the philosophical doctrine of determinism applied to a system for understanding everything that has and will occur in the system, based on the physical outcomes of causality. In a deterministic system, every action, or cause, produces a reaction, or effect, and every reaction, in turn, becomes the cause of subsequent reactions. The totality of these cascading events can theoretically show exactly how the system will exist at any moment in time.
Dar Allen Robinson was an American stunt performer and actor. Robinson broke 19 world records and set 21 "world's firsts." He invented the decelerator which allowed a cameraman to film a top-down view of the stuntman as he fell without accidentally showing the airbag on the ground. This was displayed in his fall from the hotel in the movie Stick. The original decelerator can still be seen on display in Moab, Utah.
Domino Day is a world record attempt for the highest number of toppling domino stones, organized from 1998 to 2009 by Endemol Netherlands. Together with Weijers Domino Productions of Robin Paul Weijers, also known as Mr. Domino, parties teamed up to set a new world record. The production was mainly organized at the WTC Expo in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Domino day did not occur in 2003, because the producer wanted to revise the format.
A domino is a tile used in a family of games called dominoes.
Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.
A domino computer is a mechanical computer built using dominoes to represent mechanical amplification or logic gating of digital signals.
Muggins, sometimes also called All Fives, is a domino game played with any of the commonly available sets. Although suitable for up to four players, Muggins is described by John McLeod as "a good, quick two player game".
This article lists some of the events that took place in the Netherlands in 2008.
A train game or railway game is a board game that represents the construction and operation of railways. Train games are highly involved, hobby board games that simulate the economic and logistic details of running a railway. Like wargames, train games represent a relatively small niche in the games market.
A game is a structured type of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work or art.
The Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals is a Dutch voluntary animal protection organisation, founded in 1864.
"This Too Shall Pass" is a song by American rock band OK Go. It was released as the second single from their third studio album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, in January 2010. The band took the unorthodox route of creating two official music videos for the song, both of which premiered on YouTube. The first features a live performance of the song in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Marching Band. The second features a giant Rube Goldberg machine, constructed to operate in time with the song. The popularity of the second music video of the song has been compared to that of the band's video for "Here It Goes Again", helping to boost live performances and single song sales for the group but not significantly improving sales of the Colour album. Difficulties with EMI, their corporate label, in marketing and distribution of the videos led the band to form their own independent label shortly after the videos' releases.
scandiweb is a web development and digital strategy agency specializing in the Magento platform. The company was established in 2003 in Latvia by Antons Sapriko. It has offices in the United States, Sweden, Latvia, and Georgia. scandiweb provides solutions for primarily eCommerce businesses and acts as a strategic partner for IT development focusing on web, mobile, and big data analysis. Their work is centered mainly around Magento but also includes web development on other platforms, like Shopify, BigCommerce, Shopware, and others, 3rd party integration, growth marketing—SEO, PPC, CRO, email marketing, performance optimization, hosting, data analytics, and security services.
Lily Hevesh is an American domino artist and YouTuber working under the channel name Hevesh5.