Domino is a game where players place domino tiles edge to edge on the table to form a line that gradually increases in length. Each tile placed must have a number showing at one end or the other, and the corresponding ends of the chain are called the “ends”. If a player places a domino such that both ends show the same number (normally one useful to the player and distasteful to his opponents), he is said to have “stitched up” the ends.
The game can be played by two or more persons, and the score is determined by adding up the total of the numbers on the ends of the lines of play. The end of the line of play is referred to as the “count”. In some games, the count is based on the total of the spots on the open ends of the dominoes that have been played. The remaining dominoes that have not yet been played are known as the boneyard.
When a player cannot play his next domino, he draws another domino from the boneyard. If the new domino matches the value of one already played, it is added to the line of play and play continues in the same way. If no match is found, the player must draw new tiles until he finds one that can be played. The winner is the person who plays all of his or her dominoes first.
Some domino games are positional; each player in turn places a domino onto the table positioning it so that its adjacent faces are either identical (e.g., 5 to 5) or form some specified total (e.g., a multiple of 5). Some of these positional games are also used as educational tools to teach math and counting skills.
Many games that are called dominoes in different parts of the world have very similar, sometimes even identical, rules. Some of them are used to teach children how to count and to develop motor skills. In addition, a variety of dominoes are available for use in teaching science and social studies.
When a child builds a complex domino arrangement, it takes thousands of dominoes to hold up the structure and prevent it from falling over with just a slight nudge. Hevesh Morris, a professional domino builder who performs for audiences around the world, makes test versions of each section of an installation to make sure they work before putting them together. She often films each section in slow motion to help her refine her design. She also creates a diagram of the layout of her creation, so she knows where each domino will go before she begins to set them up. She does this for every part of her display and for hundreds of thousands of dominoes. This kind of testing is a great example of the domino effect in action.