Domino is a game that involves a set of small rectangular wood or plastic blocks, usually 28 in number. These are stacked on end in long lines, with one domino tipped over the other to cause them all to fall in a chain reaction. This is not only a form of entertainment but can also be used as a teaching aid to demonstrate the principle of causation.
In the past, domino sets were made from a variety of materials, including silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl or MOP), bone, ivory, and dark hardwoods such as ebony. More recently, dominoes have been produced from polymer, a material that has many advantages over the original natural materials. Polymer dominoes are more durable and are cheaper to produce than traditional wooden sets. However, some players prefer the look and feel of a natural set of dominoes, especially because they are typically heavier than their polymer counterparts.
Most domino games are played between two or four players. Each player takes turns placing a domino on the table, positioning it so that its pips are adjacent to an existing domino. A player may only play a domino with the matching end facing up, unless it is a double. Each new domino added to a chain causes the remaining dominoes in that chain to fall, creating a snake-line pattern.
It is the repetition of this process, as well as the way in which the first domino triggers a cascade of dominoes that creates the excitement of the game. The same concept can be applied to writing a story: Think of every plot beat in your novel as a domino that can be triggered by a single action.
The first domino in a line can be tipped over by simply touching it with a finger. Then, just like the ripple effect caused by dropping a stone into a glass of water, all the other dominoes in the line will fall over. This is the domino effect, which can also be seen in many real-life events, such as the collapse of a building after an earthquake or the spread of a disease after a pandemic.
A more practical application of the domino theory is in the use of the concept to predict how a country will react to events around it. For example, Eisenhower believed that a communist takeover of Indochina would lead to a domino effect in Southeast Asia, with each country expected to follow the other.
A common variation on this domino effect is the Domino Data Lab, an end-to-end data science platform that offers a seamless integration of agile Data Science exploration with deployment and management of Model APIs in production environments. This integration enables rapid prototyping of ideas, with easy collaboration and traceability along the way. This tool has been used in the development of many successful applications, such as Facebook’s DeepFace. The tool has also been used in other projects, such as the aforementioned Domino pizza delivery vehicle.