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 Short Domino Topple

This is an overview of a basic domino course. A large tabletop or ample floorspace covered by wood, tile, or cement is preferable. If you're hindered by carpeting you can try to scrounge a bunch of tables, stands, and boards together. Now let's take a closer look at each section and their highlights:

The course starts on the near platform with a gentle push. After some twists and turns, the mini-dominoes cross a narrow yardstick bridge to another table.

In the upper-right corner you can see a ping-pong ball sitting in front of a ramp. This will roll down and trigger the next section of the course.

There are about 300 dominoes used in this part, 72 on the bridge alone. Each is only three-quarters of an inch tall.

 

At the bottom of the ramp, the ball sets off two trails of dominoes. The inner path knocks out a post that holds the notebook open. Soon afterwards, the outer path pushes a tube onto the (now closed) notebook.

This stunt needs two separate steps to work in order for the course to continue.

The tube rolls into a straight track of dominoes. That white spot at the end of it is a marble that will be pushed into a tube.

 

The marble is airborne upon exiting the PVC pipe. It falls onto a Starburst trigger which is completely walled in to ensure a successful landing.

A new trail is set off that topples in the background. A bridge crosses over the Starburst and onto the other half of the platform.

I realize now that the course would have looked better and been easier to follow if each trail was a single color.

 

There's a lot going on towards the end, but here's a close-up of one experimental stunt.

At the top of the Staircase is a domino that is tied to a stopper holding a line of marbles in place. When the domino falls from the top step, the marbles are released into a cup. The cup is attached to the ceiling by a rubber band chain that stretches as more weight fills the cup.

When enough marbles drop into the cup, it presses the Starburst's plunger and more dominoes fall.
 Videos!


Watch video of the domino course featured above in action.

And just ahead is another course that illustrates some of the unexpected problems domino topplers face. Just after the beginning, one stray domino falls onto others below. I'm forced to step into the shot to quickly reset them. It was very fortunate that the entire finale didn't fall! There's also a cut at the start of the spiral staircase where a restart was edited out.

Despite these flaws, the course is still fun to watch in my humble opinion. It's twice as long as the other, using almost 3,000 dominoes. There are several elevation changes, twists, turns, and an oh-so-slow ping-pong ball rolling above the wreckage.