Experiments in Sequential Reactions
posted by on 07/17/07
Have you ever made chain reactions with dominoes? I have had a great time 
experimenting with this recently. What tremendous fun it was to set up tracks for the dominoes! They slid down ramps, fell over, through, and under bridges and tunnels, and traveled through many incredible patterns! I especially liked using stairs, slides, block piles and the dinner bell! One even used Lincoln Logs and a marble. In picture number 6 you can see the long green piece that has a Lincoln Log balanced on its end. When the domino behind the blocks (you can see it in picture 5) 
knocks the Lincoln Log off, the front end of the green lever falls allowing the marble to roll down to the next domino and continue the chain reaction. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Log fell and hit a domino which started a second chain reaction. As you can imagine, most of my time was spent in trial and error and setting up dominoes that were often bumped and fell over. It was hard to respond with patience and not get frustrated. Just one little accident led to many of them falling over. As I contemplated this truth I was reminded how often it is that one little compromise, a small sin, leads to more and damages a person’s life. The concept of falling dominoes is an encouragement to me to reject temptations. I’m looking forward not only to getting back to trying some more domino inventions but also finding opportunities to build my relationship with the Lord.
Incredible, David! How ingenious and creative. All those different patterns and set-ups must have been thrilling to figure out and build. I could hardly believe my eyes when I watched the whole thing work all the way through, with only one little place where we had to push one over to keep it going!
David! that looks like so much fun. What creativity; what patience; what beauty. I am glad you found something fun to do while the house was basically empty. Keep it up!
This is amazing!!! What a great analogy, too, David. The domino effect of sin can happen really quickly, too!
Amen David! That was well-written. It brings to mind the story Michael told us about the Emerald Ash Tree Borer. Evidently this emerald green bug was accidently introduced to the states and began the devastation of America’s ash trees. A belt of ash trees were cut down in Ontario in the effort to stop the chain reaction. But . . . to everyone’s horror the beetles got through, probably by way of some resourceful but unsuspecting person carrying away infested logs for firewood! Why? They weren’t aware of the cause and effect sequence. May all of us young people take our lessons to heart while they’re easy to learn–as you have David.