Domino, a game of strategy and skill played with rectangular tiles, has captured the imaginations of people around the world for centuries. While the rules and strategies for domino vary, the basic principles of play remain constant. There are hundreds of different games that can be played with domino, each requiring a unique combination of skills and strategies. This versatility has made the game a timeless favorite and a symbol of camaraderie and competition in many cultures.
The number of dominoes that make up a line of play is determined by the pips on the open ends of the tiles. This is called the count. A domino is considered to be with the count if its pips match those of the next tile with the count or if its pips are equal to the number of the end of the last domino played.
If a player plays a domino that is not with the count, it is a misplay and must be recalled. However, this does not always occur in practice since it is often difficult to recognize whether a domino has been misplayed. Regardless, the player must draw another domino from the stock and play that instead of the original. If a player draws more than the number of dominoes that he is entitled to, it is called an overdraw and the extra tiles must be reshuffled before the next person draws his hand.
Most domino games require that players draw their hands before making a play. This is done to ensure that the highest possible score can be achieved. However, some domino games have no hands and players draw their tiles without looking at them. When this happens, a player may “draw” more than the number of dominoes for his hand that he actually needs to make a play. The extra dominoes must be reshuffled and the deck must be redrawn before another player makes his play.
Dominoes can be used to create artistic designs that range from straight lines to curved and 3D structures. When building these designs, artists follow a version of the engineering-design process that begins with considering a theme or purpose for the display and brainstorming images or words that might be appropriate. Detailed plans are then created to arrange the dominoes and then they are constructed.
Dominoes have also been used to model the function of neurons in the brain, particularly how they fire in response to a specific stimulus. Each domino in the chain is like a firing neuron, generating a pulse of energy that travels down the line of dominoes until it reaches the last one, which then falls over, triggering the next domino to fall and so on. This is a very simple way to illustrate the function of nerve cells, but it helps explain how the domino effect works. This is an important part of the domino model that scientists use in their studies of behavior and disease.