Here’s The Mathematics Behind The Magnificent Sight Of The Double Domino Effect

We all love our Dominoes and the incredibly satisfying sight of their dramatic tumble. But the only thing that can make it even better is doubling the fun, and that too by using the beauty of maths!

Behold the phenomenon of double domino effect, which increases the eye-catching fun by two folds using two falling waves instead of one!

Isn’t that the coolest domino project ever! The whole project seems like a magic trick as the fallen domino bricks start to tumble down again until they lay flat on the ground. How is this possible?

Thanks to a little thing called Mathematics, of course! Watch the video below to see how simple trigonometry is used to set up the double domino effect!

We can actually calculate the wave speed using a research paper from  Instituut–Lorentz, Leiden University. The speed of the wave is a function of the dimensions of the brick and the spacing between them, as follows

v = sqrt(3*g*h/(1 + h^2/b^2))* (s+b)/h,

Where g is gravity, h is height, b is the width (base), and s is the spacing. So for the first wave with the set up of the video, the wave speed is approximately 0.68m/s, which seems to match what we see in the video.

See, geeks can be cool too!

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