The Dutch Domino Team took two weeks to set up a course of 750,000 dominoes in an attempt to set the amateur record at the World Domino Collective. You can watch all 17 minutes of dominoes zigging, zagging, climbing stairs, shooting down zip lines, and even riding a Ferris wheel in the video below. A few times things didn’t trigger, leading to audible gasps from the audience. In the end though, 704,814 dominoes fell—enough to set the record.
The video above, which we saw on Boing Boing, is much more than your typical domino topple. A rainbow of colors maps out mazes, buildings, and even functional games like Plinko and air hockey. It’s obviously a lot of work and took a large team to create the huge images of carousel horses and outer space that are part of the course. It features three dimensional domino towers as well, not just the usual lines of dominoes. Everything from skyscrapers, castles, and roller coasters collapse. It looks just like when they implode a hotel in Las Vegas to make room for a new glitzier one.
There’s also a behind the scenes video showing setup and some inevitable fails. It’s stressful to watch, as the smallest mistake can start a chain reaction and result in hours of work to fix it. Afterwards, the team triggers the obstacles that didn’t work as planned in the original video. This includes a set of rockets carrying dominoes and a line of dominoes connected to a rubber duck. It only takes one extra tap to get the huge star field and duck pond to fall.
The domino course in this video is set up by a team of people, though it can also be done by robots. Check out the Hevesh5 and Dutch Domino Team YouTube channels for more amazing domino topples. The slow motion videos are particularly satisfying.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
