Domino is a tile-shaped, rectangular piece of wood or cardboard that has an arrangement of spots, called pips, on its two opposite sides. A domino has a line down the center that divides it visually into two squares, each of which may have a different value depending on the side it is facing (normally numbered zero through six, but sometimes blank).
A domino is normally twice as long as it is wide. A domino is usually placed in the center of a domino table with the other squares lined up around it. The players then play their tiles one at a time, positioning them so that they touch the end of a previous tile. As the players continue to play their tiles, a chain develops. Depending on the rules of the game, a domino chain can form a snake-line pattern or may be blocked by other pieces. The first player to place a domino whose two matching ends are touching wins the game.
Many people enjoy playing games with domino, which are also called bones, cards, men, or tiles. Some players like to line up the dominoes in long rows and then knock them over. Others prefer to use the dominoes to make patterns or to learn numbers and counting skills. A person can play a number of different games with dominoes, and the simplest ones involve placing a single tile at the top of a row so that it touches only its own end. Then, players play other tiles to create chains that reach to the end of the row and then down the side of the table.
Physicist Stephen Morris has studied the physical properties of dominoes. He has found that when a domino is standing upright, it has potential energy because its mass and position resist motion. But when a domino is pushed, its potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, and that kinetic energy pushes on the next domino until it, too, falls over. The resulting chain reaction causes dominoes to tumble in a cascade that can last for more than one-and-a-half times the distance of the original row of dominoes.
While dominoes have been used to build structures, they are most well known as a game. The word “domino” is probably derived from the Latin domus, meaning house. The earliest known dominoes were made in China in the 12th or 13th century.
The most basic domino set has 28 tiles. There are many games that can be played with this set, and the most common of these involves scoring points. For example, a player wins a game of bergen and muggins by being the first to empty his hand of all his tiles that have a number showing. Other games allow players to block opponents’ plays by placing tiles that match the end of the opponent’s tile in a way that prevents play.
