Dominoes are small flat tiles that can be stacked on end in long lines. When one domino is tipped, it causes the others in line to tip over. Dominoes can be used for many different games, including blocking and scoring games.
Hevesh creates intricate domino installations with thousands of pieces. Her largest creations can take several nail-biting minutes to fall. Hevesh makes test versions of each section of an installation to ensure that it works before putting the whole thing together.
Rules
Nearly all domino games fit into one of four categories: bidding, blocking, scoring, or round game. In blocking games, the objective is to empty your hand of domino tiles and block the opponent’s. At the end of a hand or game, players count the value of their remaining dominoes and subtract it from each opponent’s.
The first player to play a domino starts the game. After that, each player takes turns playing a domino according to the rules of the game. Players may also agree to remove obstacles (for example, an obstructed double) from the board before their turn.
When a player cannot make a play, they must announce “I pass” or knock. This prevents the other players from removing the tile and prevents them from taking their turn. Some games allow players to buy tiles from the stock when they can’t play. This is known as byeing. A player can also remove their marker from a train if it becomes public, which prevents other players from adding to the train.
Materials
There are many different types of materials used to make dominoes, including plastic, wood, ivory, and bone. They are usually twice as long as they are wide, and are marked on one side with an arrangement of dots (or pips) and on the other with a blank or a zero. The pips indicate the rank or weight of a domino, which is important in some games.
Today’s dominoes are typically made from wood or plastic, and come in a variety of sizes. The most common size is the double-six set, which contains 28 tiles. Larger sets include the dubble-nine and the double-twelve, which contain 55 and 91 tiles respectively.
A new material based on 2D quasi-layered domino structure has been developed and experimentally confirmed. This unique material, called 2D QLDS-GaTe, unveils a skewed growth structure, diverging from the substrate orientation by an angle of approximately 25°. This skewed growth mechanism imparts special interlayer interactions, a synergistic amalgamation of vdW and covalent forces.
Variations
There are many variations of domino, but the game is basically about fast thinking and mathematical calculations. In classic domino, players can count revealed tiles and those in their hands to get a sense of what’s available to play. Players should practice tile counting to make this easier. Some popular variants include matador, where the goal is to play a number that totals seven when added to an end, and muggins, in which points are awarded each time the sum of open-end pips on the dominoes played is divisible by five or three.
A player who plays the first domino is referred to as the setter, the downer or the lead. He may decide the order of seating in his game by lot, or he may seat himself according to the number of pips on the domino he is holding. In teams, partners may seat themselves across from each other. If nobody can advance their hand, the winner is the team with the lowest total count on all their unplayed dominoes.
Scoring
Most domino games fit into one of four categories: bidding games, blocking games, scoring games and round games. In scoring games, the winning player scores by counting the number of pips on the opposing players’ remaining domino tiles. This total is determined by summing the exposed ends of the dominos and dividing by 11. Generally, doubles count as one, while double-blanks count as zero.
In blocking games, the losing player’s accumulated domino pile is scored at the end of each hand or game by comparing the number of exposed sides of a domino to a certain number. For example, a double-four that is exposed on both sides counts as eight points while a double-two counts as two points.
The player who reaches a predetermined score or a certain number of rounds wins the game. If a player cannot play a single tile from their boneyard, the game is declared a draw and the players count and report their pips to each other.
