Logic Operation as Domino Gate

Conceptual Advantage

Mapping

PL	NM
Boolean value	domino piece (standing, or fallen)
or operation	two joining lines of dominos
xor operation	two lines of dominos like in left image
and operation	two lines of dominos like in right image
function argument	first domino piece in a line
function return value	last domino piece in a line

Draws Attention To

The inner workings of a Boolean logic operation (and, or, xor).

Use When

To learn about Boolean logic operations (and, or, xor, ...).

Cost

Need domino pieces. Introduces an alternative real machine (e.g., implementation of domino AND is not exactly the same as implementation of electronic circuit AND). Mechanical inaccuracies can cause problems.

Details

The idea is described under the name “Domino Circuit”, one of three different “programming languages” that strive to eliminate abstraction, in the following paper:

This notional machine was used to explain logic operations to high school students and the general public in the 10-year anniversary exhibition of the Faculty of Informatics of USI. Additionally, at the end of each exhibition day, a four-bit full-adder built entirely from domino pieces was used to add two numbers picked by the students:

The original idea of a “Domino Computer”—and a fantastic set of related resources— comes from “stand-up mathematician” Matt Parker.