What Is Domino?

Domino is a small, flat rectangular block used as a gaming object. The piece resembles a die or playing card and has an arrangement of spots on one side, called pips, that distinguish it from other dominoes. Dominoes can be arranged in straight or curved lines, or they can form grids that make shapes when they fall. They can also be stacked to build 3-D structures like towers and pyramids. Dominos can be made of wood, clay, plastic, or even metal. The pieces are often colored with a variety of colors and patterns.

Dominoes are popular games for young children and adults alike. Some people also use them to build intricate domino art. For example, in 2017, artist Lily Hevesh set up a 15-color spiral out of 12,000 dominoes. She filmed her setup in slow motion to show how the pieces fell into place. In addition to the art, Hevesh has made a number of videos about how she designs and builds these complex structures.

The most common domino game is a blocking or scoring game, where players try to empty their hand while keeping opponents’ tiles in play. Traditional sets contain 28 dominoes, with each piece having one or more squares on its face that have an arrangement of dots. Each square is either blank or identically patterned on both sides. The top surface of a domino is sometimes shiny or polished, while the bottom surface can be matte or dull. The most basic western domino variant is a block-and-draw game for two players. The tiles are shuffled and placed face down on the table. The pieces that remain are known as the stock or boneyard, and each player draws seven tiles. The player who draws the highest domino plays first.

Aside from blocking and scoring, Domino has also been used as a way to teach math and counting skills. Many domino games, such as matador, chicken foot, and Mexican train, help children recognize numbers and practice simple addition and subtraction. Other games, such as bergen and muggins, help kids learn about decimals and fractions.

Domino also has a comic book history. The character originated as a member of the mutant mercenary team the Six Pack, led by Cable. When the pack disbanded after a mission in the Yucatan, Domino went her own way until Cable asked her to join X-Force. She has since had a volatile run-in with the vengeful assassin Blockade at his hideout in Hell’s Kitchen and fought to save Gryaznova, who was resurrected with a brain implant that can make her telepathic.

Most people think of domino as something that just falls over when a single piece hits another, but it can actually knock down things much bigger than the dominoes themselves. A 1983 experiment by University of British Columbia physicist Lorne Whitehead, for example, demonstrated that a domino can knock over objects nearly a quarter of its own size. This was later verified by a more elaborate 1983 experiment by University of Toronto physics professor Stephen Morris, who constructed a series of 13 dominoes that each covered an area one-and-a-half times larger than the domino itself.