Physics of the domino effect. Or how to knock over the empire state building using 28 dominos
by David Ng
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“A domino can knock over another domino about 1.5x larger than itself. A chain of dominos of increasing size makes a kind of mechanical chain reaction that starts with a tiny push and knocks down an impressively large domino.
See http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0401018 for a sophisticated discussion of the physics.”
First presented by Lorne Whitehead, American Journal of Physics, Vol. 51, page 182 (1983). – pdf
We have this demonstration in the department and we used it last year in the Faraday Show!
(I should also mentioned that the demo was built by the original author Lorne Whitehead
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Reblogged this on Science, I Choose You! and commented:
I rarely reblog something but this got me really excited! The original paper was written by Dr. Lorne Whitehead in my department. We actually have the exact demo built by him, and we used it in our science shows! I saw the demo a few times – usually we get a little kid to come up and blow the dominoes down. Pretty awesome. One of my favourites.
[...] turn. But in a 1983 study, University of British Columbia physicist Lorne Whitehead demonstrated the true power of the domino effect. As showcased by University of Toronto professor Stephen Morris, dominoes can actually knock down [...]