2004/01/07 by J. M. J. van Leeuwen, van Leeuwen, J. M. J. · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical Philosophy and Thought #FOS: Physical sciences #General Physics (physics.gen-ph) #physics.gen-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0401018
18 pages 4 figures
arxiv created 2004/01/07 · openalex publication_date 2004/01/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The physics of a row of toppling dominoes is discussed. In particular the forces between the falling dominoes are analyzed and with this knowledge, the effect of friction has been incorporated. A set of limiting situations is discussed in detail, such as the limit of thin dominoes, which allows a full and explicit analytical solution. The propagation speed of the domino effect is calculated for various spatial separations. Also a formula is given, which gives explicitly the main dependence of the speed as function of the domino width, height and interspacing.