Domino is a family of tile-based board games. Its name reflects the domino effect—the idea that one small action can have much larger (and sometimes disastrous) consequences.
The game of domino is characterized by the placement of tiles in long lines, with each end touching the ends of other tiles. If the first domino is tipped over, it causes all the other tiles in the line to fall, creating intricate designs that can be arranged as desired.
A domino is a rectangular plastic or wood tile marked with an arrangement of dots or pips. Each end of the domino is marked with a value, from six pips down to none or blank. The sum of the values on both ends of a domino is called its rank or weight. A domino with more pips on its two ends is considered to be heavier than a domino with fewer pips on both ends.
When a player draws their dominoes, the ones with the highest value on either end are placed on-edge first, and the others are drawn to follow. This allows each player to see the value of their tiles and also keeps the other players from being able to see what they have in their hands. A number of different rules govern how a domino set should be arranged, and how many tiles are allowed in each hand.
A common way to organize a set of dominoes is in suits. A suit consists of tiles with the same value on both ends and may contain all of the numbers from 1 through 6, or it may contain only some of them. Each suit is numbered to distinguish it from other sets of dominoes.
Dominoes can be played in a variety of ways, but most involve scoring points by playing all of the tiles in your hand. To do this, you must have the right amount of matching pairs of tiles. This can be done by either counting the total number of pips on both ends of a piece or by determining how many of its sides are marked and then comparing it to the number of matched pieces.
In some cases, players can add a single domino to another tile by placing it at an angle. This can make a space for a new piece of the same type to be added, or it can change the direction in which a line is going.
The most well-known domino art is created by Lily Hevesh, a young woman who has become a YouTube celebrity for her work with the little plastic pieces. Hevesh started collecting dominoes at age 9, and by the time she was 10, she had begun making videos of her own creations. Her videos have garnered more than 2 million views on her Hevesh5 channel.
As she has climbed the ranks of popularity, Hevesh has used her domino skills to create elaborate setups for events, movies, and music albums. She has even designed a line of dominoes for Domino’s pizza.