Domino is a game that involves placing dominoes on a table so that they line up and form a row, or “line of play.” Each piece has one or more dots that indicate how many points it has. A domino can have either a single side with multiple dots or a double side with identical numbers. The number of sides a domino has determines its value.
The most common way that people use dominoes is to play games. There are many different kinds of domino games, and the rules of each vary from place to place. Some games have very similar, or even identical, names in different parts of the world but are played with very different rules.
In general, to play a domino game, each player draws the number of tiles required by the rules of the particular game and places them in front of him. The players then take turns placing dominoes in a line on the floor or another surface. When a player has no more tiles in his hand, the first person to place a tile begins the next turn. Some games require that only a specific number of pips be on the dominoes that are placed. Other rules specify that the heaviest domino starts the game, and still others count only the number of pips on the ends of the two adjoining sides of a domino that is placed in the line.
When a domino falls over, it converts some of its potential energy to kinetic energy, which gives it the push needed to knock over the next domino in line. This continues, with each domino providing the push needed to knock over the next, until all of the dominoes in the line have fallen over.
While the term “domino” was introduced in the 18th century, the game itself is believed to have originated as early as the 16th century. Both Italy and France were involved, and towards the end of the 18th century it was brought to England by French prisoners.
The modern domino set consists of 28 pieces. Each domino originally represented the 21 possible results of throwing two dice. There were also Chinese domino sets, which differed from the western ones by not having any blank faces.
Hevesh, a professional domino artist with more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, creates mind-blowing installations that involve hundreds of thousands of dominoes. Her largest creations can take several nail-biting minutes to fall. She says that when creating her setups, she follows a version of the engineering-design process. Using the laws of physics, she begins by considering the theme or purpose of an installation, and brainstorms images or words that might relate to it. She then considers how she will build her domino layout, which includes the shape of the setup and the size of its footprint. Hevesh has created domino sets for movies, TV shows, and events—including the record-setting Guinness World Record display for Katy Perry’s album launch.