It may seem like fun and games, but understanding how dominoes topple isn’t child’s play.
“It’s a problem that is so natural; everybody plays with dominoes,” says David Cantor, a researcher at Polytechnique Montreal with a background in civil engineering. So Cantor set out to create computer simulations of a row of dominoes collapsing in a chain reaction.
Domino games are more fun with a buddy — and so is research on the rectangular blocks. Cantor teamed up with a friend, physicist Kajetan Wojtacki of the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
Friction is crucial for determining the speed at which the collapse cascades through a row of dominoes, the pair report in the June Physical Review Applied. That includes both the friction between colliding dominoes, and between the dominoes and the surface they sit on.
The computer simulations revealed the conditions needed for a speedy collapse. Toppling cascaded quickest for closely spaced dominoes that had little friction between them and that stood on a high-friction surface (SN: 8/1/19).
Less friction between dominoes — as occurs for tiles with more slippery surfaces — means less energy is lost. And more friction between the dominoes and the surface they stand on, such as rough felt, means that the tiles don’t slide too far backward as they fall. Such backsliding would otherwise slow the cascade.
In some simulations, the chain reaction stopped short. For instance, dominoes spaced far apart on a slippery surface backslid so much they avoided hitting each other.
Based on the simulations, the two domino dynamos came up with an equation that predicts the speed of collapse and showed that the predictions matched results of previous experiments. Turns out, there’s serious science behind the satisfying spectacle.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
