What Is Domino?

domino

Domino is a popular tabletop game played with a set of flat rectangular blocks called dominoes. They are usually twice as long as they are wide and feature a line in the middle to divide them into two squares, called ends, which bear from one to six pips (or spots) arranged as on dice faces.

They are commonly used in a variety of games, including block and draw, score, and layout. A set of 28 dominoes is the standard size, although larger sets are available.

Some people refer to them as bones, pieces, men, or tiles, and they may be made of wood, bone, plastic, or a combination of materials. In some versions, the pieces have identifying marks on them.

In most types of play, a player’s goal is to place his or her dominoes in such a way as to create a straight line. The matching ends of each piece must be adjacent to each other and must touch fully.

Players must also avoid overlapping pieces and placing two of the same domino on the same end. This can be tricky and is not always easy to do.

To play the game, a player begins by drawing a number of dominoes from a stock (called a “bone yard” in the United States) and placing them face up on the table. He or she may then draw more dominoes or move the pieces around to make a new set of dominoes.

The player who has the highest double wins that hand and draws more dominoes from the stock or, in team games, passes his or her turn. If no one has the highest double, the next heaviest domino in the highest suit is drawn. The player with that domino wins the hand and plays it first.

When the dominoes are laid, each piece must be matched to the other; if the dots on the exposed ends of the dominoes total any multiple of five, the player is awarded points for the match. A double, which consists of two identical dominoes, is a special case and must be placed crossways across the line instead of directly opposite each other.

In addition to being a fun and entertaining activity, dominoes are useful for teaching children about numbers and probability. Many schools have a set of dominoes that can be used in math and science lessons, and some teachers use them as classroom game boards to teach basic counting skills.

Another fun and creative way to enjoy the game is to design your own track for the dominoes to fall on. You can create a curved line, grids that form pictures when the dominoes fall, or stacked walls and 3D structures.

For example, Lily Hevesh is a professional domino artist who creates mind-blowing domino setups for events and movies. Her YouTube channel, Hevesh5, has more than 2 million subscribers.

Hevesh uses a version of the engineering-design process for creating her designs. Her process begins with brainstorming images and words she might want to include in her track, and then using a calculator to calculate how many dominoes are needed to create the design. She also plans how she will use the dominoes to achieve her theme and how to set up the tracks.