A domino is a small rectangular block of wood or plastic marked with two groups of dots, or pips, resembling those on dice. A domino set can be used to play a wide variety of games. The most familiar type of game involves matching the open ends of adjacent dominoes with each other, forming a line of one or more dominoes from end to end and scoring points for each domino that matches, or “touches,” an adjacent domino in the line. A player can win a domino game by playing all of his or her tiles before any opponents do, or by reaching a specified score first.
The term domino may also refer to:
Domino Art
When Hevesh designs her mind-blowing domino creations, a crucial element is science. She follows a version of an engineering-design process to plan out her projects, and when she’s ready to set them in motion, she lets gravity do the rest. The process of creating a domino setup is surprisingly similar to that of building an engine or car, and the force of gravity plays a major role in each project.
Hevesh has worked on some of the largest domino installations, including a round, multi-level set that was the Guinness World Record Holder for most dominoes in a circular arrangement. When she plans out her projects, she considers the theme and purpose of the installation, brainstorms images or words to incorporate in her design, and calculates how many dominoes will be needed to complete the layout.
She has also worked on a number of collaborative projects with other artists and designers, such as the world-famous graffiti artist and set designer, Stikman. The collaborations range from simple straight lines to intricate grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls, and even 3D structures like pyramids.
There are numerous different games that can be played with a domino set, and each game has its own rules of play. The most common game is dominoes, a skillful game that involves attempting to be the first player to reach a specified number of points in a round often 61. This is accomplished by identifying and playing the highest value domino in the player’s hand, known as an opening double. When a player does not have the highest possible opening double, they may call out the name of that domino (usually starting with a question mark, such as “double-six?”), or another higher value domino with an open end, until it is found and played.
Other games of a very different character are also commonly played with dominoes, most of them adaptations of card games that were once popular in some areas to circumvent religious proscriptions against playing cards. In these games, players pick a hand of dominoes from the bone yard and try to match it with other hands by adding up the total number of pips on the opened ends of the dominoes in their hands. For example, in the game of Concentration, a double-six set is used and the highest total pips count wins the hand.