By: Andrew Tan

For many kids, dominoes seem just like fun and games. But understanding the science of why and how they toppled was taken on by David Cantor and Kajetan Wojtacki.

Cantor is a researcher at Polytechnique Montreal in Quebec, Canada. He has a background in civil engineering. In addition, Wojtacki works at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, which is part of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

The pair concluded a study using a computer to model a row of collapsing dominoes. It’s a chain reaction in which the speed of the collapsing dominoes depends on friction. Their computer model could represent how best to get a rapid collapse. They discovered that the fastest fall occurred when they spaced slippery dominoes together on a rough surface, such as felt.

Finally, the duo used math to describe this with an equation predicting the collapse speed under specific conditions. They demonstrated this in a video they made called 250,000 DOMINOES! – The American Domino Record – Smarter Every Day 178