The Domino Effect
Domino is a series of flat rectangular pieces with numbers or symbols on them that are laid out in long rows to form a game played by two or more people. Dominoes can be used to play many different games, from a simple tic-tac-toe to a complex strategy game involving overlapping and intersecting pieces. Dominoes are also sometimes used in mathematical exercises to demonstrate the properties of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Most domino sets consist of 28 pieces—each one twice as wide as it is tall, with the numbers or pips in various positions on each end. The pips on each end of a domino range in value from six down to none or blank. The number of pips on each end of a tile determines its rank or weight, which may be referred to as its “value.”
Depending on the game being played, players try to make a chain of dominoes by placing their tiles so that the exposed ends match (e.g., one’s touching two’s). When this happens, the dominoes are said to be “stitching up” their ends. The player then scores points by laying subsequent tiles so that the exposed ends of all of them match each other (e.g., a row of three double-sixes).
The word domino is also used to refer to the action of a person playing this game by putting down a piece, or “adding it,” and then knocking all of the other pieces down in a cascade. The word has an even earlier sense, though, as a garment: in both English and French, it originally denoted a long hooded cloak worn together with a mask for carnival season or at a masquerade.
While it may be easy to think of the domino effect as a powerful force, it’s actually much more subtle than that. University of British Columbia physicist Lorne Whitehead, who studied the mechanics of dominoes in 1983, found that when a domino is set up upright, it stores potential energy—a kind of stored energy based on its position. When it falls, however, the potential energy changes to kinetic energy—the kind of energy that causes the rest of the dominoes to fall as well.
Whether you compose your manuscript off the cuff or take your time with a careful outline, plotting a novel ultimately comes down to one question: What happens next? Considering the domino effect as you write will help you answer this question in a way that makes your story compelling. Thanks to Juan for asking this WONDERful question!
