What is Domino?
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Domino is a small, flat rectangular block used as a gaming object. It has an arrangement of numbered dots on one side, called pips, and blank or identically patterned other sides. It can be made of wood, bone, or plastic and is also referred to as bones, pieces, men, or cards. It is used in a variety of games to build lines of dominoes that can topple when struck or pushed by another piece. It is also used as a learning tool to help students with their number recognition and counting skills.
Dominoes can be used in a wide range of games, from simple matching and pairing to complex scoring games, such as Bergen or Muggins. Many of these games involve emptying a player’s hand while blocking the opponent’s play, and many involve determining points by counting the pips in each lost tile. Others, such as matador and Mexican train, teach number recognition and counting skills.
A game of domino requires a set of 28 dominoes, which are typically shuffled face down to form a stock or boneyard. Each player draws seven dominoes from this stock. Then, each player attempts to lay down a domino with a value that matches the value of a domino on either end of the line already formed. The first person to successfully do this wins the game.
The word domino is derived from the Latin dominus, meaning “lord” or “master.” It first appeared in English in the late 17th century, but it has an even earlier sense as a long hooded cloak worn together with a mask at a masquerade or carnival. It is not clear how the hooded cloak became associated with the game of domino, but it is possible that the color scheme of blacks and ivorys resembled the colors of the domino pieces themselves.
When children compensate for weak foundational skills, they drain their working memory capacity. This limits their ability to process information, and as compensation becomes more difficult, performance begins to suffer. This is a domino effect, where the weak skill impacts the compensation and then, in turn, the learning.
The traditional domino set contains 28 tiles, each numbered with a combination of 0-6 pips on one side and a blank or identically patterned other side. Larger sets often include more pips, and some introduce additional pips on the ends of the dominoes.
Identifying the number of pips on a domino is easy with a smaller set, but as the dominoes grow larger, it becomes harder to read the pips. To make it easier, some larger domino sets use more readable Arabic numerals instead of pips. The most common domino game is a two-player draw-and-place game, using a double-six set. In this game, each player draws seven tiles from the stock, then draws a domino with a value that match’s or exceeds the value of the domino on the other end of the line. When the first domino falls, most of its potential energy converts to kinetic energy, the energy of motion. Some of this kinetic energy then travels to the next domino, providing the push it needs to fall. This continues until all the dominoes have fallen.