A domino can knock over another domino about 1.5x larger than itself. A chain of dominos of increasing size makes a kind of mechanical chain reaction that starts with a tiny push and knocks down an impressively large domino.Watch University of Toronto’s Professor Stephen Morris knock over a 1-meter tall domino that weighs over 100 pounds by starting with a tiny 5mm high by 1mm thick domino.
There are 13 dominoes in this sequence. If Professor Morris used 29 dominoes in total, with the next one always being 1.5x larger, the last domino would be the height of the Empire State Building.
Standing a domino on its end stores a certain amount of potential energy which is released by pushing it over. However, the force required to topple the domino is smaller than the force it generates when it falls. It is this “force amplification” that can be used to topple bigger dominoes.
