Natural Entrepreneur: Progressive Falling Dominos

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Progressive Falling Dominos

How the tiny can topple a behemoth

Many an entrepreneur would like to know the secret how a tiny thing can actually topple a behemoth. Here is a simple experiment that demonstrates the power of exponential growth.

In this demonstration, a falling domino knocks over a larger domino, which in turn knocks over an even larger domino. Each one is one-and-a-half times bigger than the previous. Beginning with a tiny 5mm x 1mm domino, and progressing through 12 more, the tiny one readily knocks down a huge one-meter slab weighing 100 lbs.

Click here to view the video
(Discovery Channel)

How does it work? When you stand up a domino on its edge (from the lying position), it is basically storing energy. This energy is given back when it topples over. But it takes only a little energy to knock a domino down. In fact, the energy expended by one toppling domino is almost twice as much needed to knock another down; and certainly enough to knock down one bigger than itself. Thus, each domino topples the next one 150% its size, and the energy release is exponential.

In this demo, a tiny fleck knocks down 12 other dominos, the last one weighing 100 pounds. If you were to keep going, the 29th domino could be nearly 1500 feet tall, as big as as skyscraper!

--by Jonathan Linowes

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