Domino is a game of chance, strategy and skill. Its name derives from the Latin dominus, and the game has been associated with cause and effect — one action often leads to many others.
Stacking dominoes on end in long lines allows them to be knocked over — a phenomenon inspired by the common phrase “domino effect.” These chains can create elaborate and impressive designs.
Rules
Players must thoroughly shuffle the dominoes before each hand. Any domino exposed during the shuffle must be turned back down and reshuffled. Players cannot discuss the game with opponents during a match. If there is a misunderstanding, it is the responsibility of the player to call a UDL Official to resolve the issue.
In most domino games, one goal is to empty a player’s hands while blocking the opponent’s. In the end, the winning player scores by subtracting the value of their remaining domino tiles from each of the losing players’ remaining tile values.
Another variation of this is the DRAW game, which follows the same rules as block except that when a player can’t go they draw dominoes from the boneyard until they can or until the boneyard is empty. The winner of the last game played starts play in the next round. Also, in the DRAW game, the first player to play a double is considered the lead.
Materials
Domino is a great activity to do with kids because it provides a hands on model for the fact that spacing affects wave speed. It is a fun and easy way to illustrate this principle in an exciting and engaging way.
The domino tile, also known as a bone, card or piece is rectangular and features a line down the middle to visually divide it into two sides. Each end of the tile contains a number. In the most common set, which is double six, the numbers range from 6 to 0.
The first dominoes were made of a material called bois durci, a type of wood sawdust that was mixed with either blood or eggs. It was followed by bakelite, invented by Leo Baekeland and then plastic derived from petroleum products. There are some sets that are still made of natural materials, such as marble, granite or soapstone; hardwoods like ebony and tagua nut; metals including brass; ceramic clay; or frosted glass.
Variations
There are a number of variations of domino games. Some use a unique game mechanism, others are novel ways of scoring. All of them have something in common: they rely on the correpondence between domino tiles and the possible results of throwing two dice.
One example is the Mexican Train variation that requires a double tile to be covered by a matching one on both ends (like 4|8). This allows a player to string together more of their dominoes on personal trains and provides an added challenge.
Another example is Moon, a 42 variant that uses a larger domino game set and adds more points for tricks. Hevesh, who designs many of these mind-blowing domino setups, follows a version of an engineering design process to ensure her creations work correctly. She creates test versions of each section before putting them all together. This way she can correct any issues early on. She also uses videos to help her understand how the setups will function when they’re complete.
Scoring
Domino is a set of 28 domino pieces that have two square ends with numbers on them. Each of these is numbered differently from the other, and one end of each tile has more pips than the other. These differences are used to determine the scoring system in different types of domino.
In most games, players play to win by accumulating the highest score. To determine the winner, the players’ domino tiles are compared to each other at the end of a hand. The winner subtracts the value of each opponent’s remaining domino tiles from their own and adds this amount to their score.
In some games, the winning player is awarded points when the number of his or her domino tiles reaches a specified point limit. Usually, the point limit is 150 or 200. The most common scoring systems are based on fives and threes, with a single point scored for each domino that is divisible by both of these numbers.
