A domino is a flat thumb-sized rectangular block of wood, clay or plastic, bearing one to six arranged spots or dots (or blanks) on each side and divided visually into two squares by a line, called the apex, which may feature an arrangement of pips similar to those on dice. The number of pips on each end determines the value of the tile and may be used to rank or compare its value with other tiles. The most common set consists of 28 tiles, but larger sets exist for games that require many dominoes to play. Dominoes are normally twice as long as they are wide, which makes them easier to re-stack after use. Dominoes are used for a variety of games that involve blocking or scoring.
In her domino art, Hevesh builds curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, and even 3-D structures like towers and pyramids. But despite the intricate designs, her biggest creations take several nail-biting minutes to fall. Hevesh attributes this to the fact that each domino has a physical property known as inertia, a tendency to resist motion. It’s only when a domino loses this force that it becomes ready to topple, and once it does, the potential energy it had stored is released.
When a domino is tipped over, it pushes on the next domino and sets off a chain reaction that continues until all of the tiles are knocked down. For Hevesh, creating this chain reaction is the most exciting part of domino play.
But what Hevesh and other players forget is that it’s not just about building lines and rows of dominoes — it’s also about designing the right layout to create a fun, challenging, or rewarding game. A well-designed layout can help a player increase his or her chances of winning, despite the odds of each turn.
The most common way to design a domino layout is to draw it on paper and then mark off the squares that are unavailable for play with arrows. This allows the players to see how the pieces will fit together, determining whether their play is blocked by an open or closed square. In some games, such as bergen and muggins, all sides of a square must be occupied before other pieces can be played on that spot.
Most domino games are blocking games, where the object is to empty the hand while blocking opponents’ play. But a few of them, such as bergen and muggins, are scoring games that count the sum of all the pips in the losing players’ hands. Other domino games include solitaire and trick-taking games, which were often popular among people who could not legally play cards because of religious proscriptions. These types of games are a great way for children to learn about numbers and practice skills like counting and arithmetic.