Domino is a small rectangular wood or plastic block with one side marked with an arrangement of dots resembling those on dice. It is used as the base for a game of chance and skill that involves building long chains of dominoes by placing them on top of each other. Dominoes are also known as bones, cards, men, or pieces and come in a variety of shapes and colors. The most common set contains 28 dominoes, each with a different value ranging from 0 to 6.
A domino’s value is determined by the number of pips on its ends, which are normally colored either white or black to distinguish it from other tiles. The dominoes are usually twice as long as they are wide, which makes them easier to stack and re-stack. The pips are usually arranged in a pattern that differs from one side to the other, but some sets use a completely uniform design.
When playing domino, a player takes turns laying tiles on the table so that they touch each other at both their long sides and one of their short ones. In turn, other players can play tiles on top of these so that their ends match up with either of the previous two. This continues until a complete chain is built that shows the desired outcome of the game.
While the rules of dominoes vary from game to game, there is an overall structure that provides a level of difficulty to the player that increases as more complex patterns are created. The most popular domino games involve placing a tile on a long end of a line of dominoes, which then triggers the other end to fall and create a chain reaction that moves across the table. This is a popular activity for both children and adults, and can be played on a variety of surfaces.
For more advanced dominoes, a player can create a layout that includes doubles. These are tiles that have matching pips on both of their ends, so they can be positioned together in the same way that other tiles may be placed to build a chain. A tile played to a domino that is a double must be positioned so that it straddles the end of the domino that it connects to, and additional tiles can only be laid against the long side of a double.
Dominoes can be stacked to make straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, or 3D structures like towers and pyramids. The sky is the limit when it comes to creating domino art, and it can be an excellent activity for people of all ages.
While Hevesh has worked on team projects involving hundreds of thousands of dominoes, her most impressive creations take several nail-biting minutes to fall. However, she credits one physical phenomenon for her success – gravity. This force pulls a knocked-over domino toward the ground, causing it to collide with the next domino in the sequence and start the chain reaction again.
