Domino is a game of chance and strategy where players try to line up dominoes edge to edge so that the numbers on the ends of each tile match. This sets off chain reactions that can lead to the end of a game. It’s not uncommon for players to build domino chains that are a foot or more long and take a considerable amount of time to set up.
Domino has a long history and has been played by millions of people throughout the world. The oldest known game of domino dates back to 1120 CE in China. The Chu sz yam (Investigations on the Traditions of All Things) document said that dominoes were invented by a statesman who presented them to the Emperor Hui Tsung.
The power of a domino is amazing to see in person. A University of British Columbia physicist once made a video that shows what happens when you put up 13 dominoes, each about five millimeters tall and weighing just one-and-a-half grams. The first domino starts off the chain by a simple trick of physics: it only needs to be slightly tipped for gravity to take over. From there, the next domino simply falls over because of the force of gravity and the fact that each domino has a higher center of mass than the last. As the dominoes get bigger, they’re harder to tip, and it takes more and more power for each new domino to fall after the previous one.
Aside from the obvious fun of playing domino, it’s a good way to learn about math and arithmetic. Some people also like to play domino puzzles, which are a sort of arithmetic version of a crossword puzzle. The simplest domino puzzles involve matching the ends of the tiles so that they are identical, but some sets have more complex patterns and require the use of arithmetic principles to place tiles based on their pips.
There are many different types of dominoes, which can be made out of a variety of materials including ivory, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), bone, and a dark wood such as ebony. Some sets are even made from ceramic clay or frosted glass. These sets typically have a more unique look than the polymer dominoes that are most commonly sold, and they often feel heavier in your hand.
The most common Western games of domino are positional, where players place a domino, or group of tiles, edge to edge on the table positioning each so that the pips on both sides match up with each other, or form some specified total. The player then places another domino on top of the group, thereby creating a chain that grows in length. The first player to get all of their tiles in a domino chain wins the game. Dominoes are also used as a learning tool in schools, and they can be used to teach children the basic principles of counting, arithmetic, and probability.
