Domino, the cousin of playing cards, is one of the oldest tools for game play. Players can create chains of dominoes and knock them over to win games requiring strategy, skill, and patience. Originally, the markings on dominoes, known as pips, represented the results of throwing two six-sided dice. Now they can represent anything from a simple line of dominoes to the shape of a chessboard.
A large part of the fun in playing domino is watching a chain reaction take place. A single domino only needs to be tipped over by a tiny amount for the next one in line to tip over, and so on until they all get knocked down. The physics behind this is called the domino effect.
The earliest examples of the word “domino” come from Latin. The word may have been used to refer to an entire group of people or to a system of rules that affects many people and things. The earliest known reference is a poem from the 1300s in which a man and woman are shown falling over on top of each other as if they were dominoes.
In the late 1950s, Domino’s Pizza founder Frank Monaghan began expanding his business. He emphasized placing pizzerias near college campuses to appeal to students, and his business began growing rapidly. In 1967, he opened the first official Domino’s franchise in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Monaghan’s early strategy was key to the company’s success, and it helped him grow into a national brand by the 1970s.
He also used a strategy that involved placing Domino’s in densely populated areas, which allowed him to reach more customers quickly. He grew the company to over 200 locations by 1978.
Besides providing entertainment, dominoes can also help children learn the basics of math and counting. Children often use them to build towers or to create patterns. Stacking dominoes on end and causing them to topple over can also teach the concept of gravity.
While playing dominoes can be a fun and educational activity, it’s important to remember that the rules of the game must be followed. If a player cannot lay a piece, they should “knock” or rap the table to signal that play must continue with another player. If the game comes to a point where no player can advance, the winning player is determined by who has the least number of total pips in their remaining pieces.
As a writer, I often think of domino as a metaphor for the way that one small action can lead to bigger consequences. It’s a good idea to plan out your plot ahead of time so that your scenes don’t contradict each other or lack sufficient tension. If you are a pantster, though, and don’t use outlines or Scrivener to guide your writing, it’s easy for scenes to develop that are at the wrong angle or don’t have enough impact on the scene that precedes them. This can thwart your ability to create the domino effect in your novel.