How Dominoes Are Played
Dominoes are a type of game where the players place tiles on the table and build a chain of them. The chain is completed by knocking over all of the tiles that remain. This game is often played by children, and it helps them develop their motor skills and improve their hand-eye coordination. There are many different games that can be played with dominoes, and they can help children learn to follow a sequence of events. One of the most popular is a variation on Concentration, where the player has to match each color with another. Dominoes are also used in educational settings to teach basic math skills. A teacher can hold up a domino that has four dots on one end and two on the other, and ask the class to name an addition equation that is equal to the total number of dots on the domino.
While the word domino comes from the Italian domino, it may also be derived from the Spanish word dominador, which means “master” or “leader”. The name of the game is probably an allusion to its ability to trigger chains of events, similar to the way a single tumbling domino can cause others to fall. The concept of a domino effect is often seen in real life, and it refers to the way that one event can prompt a change in other related behaviors. For example, a study from Northwestern University found that when people reduced their amount of sedentary leisure time, they also began to reduce their daily fat intake as a side effect.
The first step in building a domino chain is to draw a number of dominoes from a deck. These are then stacked on edge so that each player can see only their own tiles. The starting player is usually determined either by drawing lots or by determining who has the heaviest domino in their hand. The first tile is then placed on the table, and the rest of the players play their tiles in turn. Once a complete chain has been built, the first player to touch a tile that is a match for that domino wins.
Most domino games are played with a double-twelve (91 tiles) or double-nine set of dominoes. Larger sets exist, but they are rarely used in games involving more than four players. There are a few different ways that a domino can be arranged on the table to form a chain, and this is an important part of the strategy for each game.
The way that a domino is placed is determined by the rules of each game. In most cases, a tile must be placed so that its matching end is adjacent to the domino it touches. Exceptions to this rule occur when a double is played, in which case the tile must be placed cross-ways across a domino that is touching it on its long sides. This allows additional tiles to be placed in the chain on each side of the domino that is touching it. The result is a snake-like layout of dominoes that gradually increases in length.
