Domino is a game of chance and skill. Its rules are simple: each player takes a turn placing a domino so that its end touches either an exposed edge of another domino or one of the adjacent edges of an already-established chain. The chains can be straight lines, curved lines that form pictures or grids, stacked walls, or 3D structures such as towers and pyramids. The first player to play all of their dominoes wins the game.
Dominoes (also known as bones, cards, men, or pieces) are small rectangular wood or plastic blocks with a face divided into halves and marked by dots resembling those on dice. A domino is normally twice as long as it is wide, making it easy to stack them in layers. A domino’s value is determined by the number of dots it has on one or both ends (also called “points”). The more pips a domino has, the higher its rank and weight.
A domino is a kind of a mathematical manipulative used to illustrate the commutative property of addition. It helps students understand that no matter how a domino is oriented, the total number of dots remains the same. This is particularly useful for young children who may not have a clear understanding of addition without moving the numbers around.
The domino theory, also known as the Domino Effect or Falling Dominoes, is a metaphor that describes a situation where one event causes another to happen, and so on. For example, a rise or fall in communist influence in a country is expected to have knock-on effects in neighboring countries and so on.
For this reason, the domino theory has been used in political debates to analyze a change in a country’s policy or military strategy and how it is expected to impact the region and beyond. The term is often used to explain changes in a country’s relations with other nations, and it has even been used as the title of an essay written by the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
In a 1983 study, University of British Columbia physicist Lorne Whitehead showed that the potential energy of a domino is much greater than most people realize. When a domino is set up, it has inertia — a tendency to resist motion until an outside force acts on it. However, if the domino is pushed from its starting position, it will immediately begin to push on other nearby dominoes with an equal amount of force.
The Block game is the simplest domino variant for two players and requires a double-six set from which each player draws seven tiles. The first player places the starting tile which begins the line of play. Then each player alternately extends it by playing a matching domino to an existing end of the line. When a player cannot continue, they pass. Play continues until one player plays all of their dominoes or the game is blocked and no one can proceed.