Domino is a flat, thumbsized block of wood or composite material with either one or six pips (spots) on each face and blanks on the other. The pips give domino its name, and each domino is normally twice as long as it is wide, making them easy to stack and re-stack after use.
A set of dominoes is used to play a variety of games, each with its own rules and objectives. The most common are blocking games (such as bergen and muggins), scoring games (such as domino race and Mexican train), and layout games.
The latter type of domino game involves laying down tiles in straight lines or angular patterns. Each tile has a number of pips or blanks on both faces, and each player must carefully plan out their layout to avoid misplaying the tiles. Creating such layouts can be challenging, but the rewards for successfully completing a design are great. In fact, some artists create works of art using dominoes: some create curved lines that form pictures when the pieces fall, and others build 3D structures such as towers and pyramids.
Whether we’re writing a book off the cuff or composing a manuscript from an outline, the act of plotting comes down to one simple question: What happens next? And while it may seem tempting to wing it and let the characters guide the story, the best way to write a compelling plot is to think about how every action will create a series of dominoes that lead to the ending you want.
Dominos were first developed in the mid-1700s by a French monk named Dominic. His goal was to design a set of playing pieces that would easily fit together and be durable enough for everyday use. His first creation was an ebony-black domino with ivory faces, which contrasted nicely with the white surplice worn by priests. These contrasting colors and the simple yet elegant design of dominoes made them instantly popular in France.
In a typical domino game, players draw a hand of seven tiles and then place them in front of them on the table. The first player plays a tile, usually the double-six, and subsequent players follow in sequence with whatever is on their hand. Depending on the game, the player who draws the highest double goes first; other games determine the starting player by drawing lots or by the heaviness of each player’s hand.
After each player plays their tile, the remaining tiles are collected in a boneyard and the game continues until one player scores all of his or her points and wins the round. Typically, a player wins by scoring all of the exposed pips on opposing players’ tiles. In some games, doubles count as either one or two, and the blanks can count as zero or fourteen.
When a domino falls, it transforms some of its potential energy into kinetic energy that pushes the next domino over, and the process repeats until all of the dominoes have fallen. This is a wonderful example of the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy is neither created nor destroyed.
