Domino is a tile game in which players take turns placing dominoes on a table until the entire board has been covered. Each domino has a number showing on one end and if the player places it so that both ends show the same number, the player is said to have “stitched up” the ends. The game is played with a standard double-twelve set (91 tiles) or a standard double-nine set (55) and can be played by two, three, or four players. The game is often found at old-fashioned domino halls in small towns throughout the southern states of America.

When Lily Hevesh first saw the 28-piece set her grandparents gave her, she fell in love with creating domino lines in a straight or curved line and then flicking it so that all of them toppled over. She continued to play the game all through childhood, and now she’s a professional domino artist who creates mind-blowing setups for movies, TV shows, and even a Katy Perry album release. Hevesh’s creations may take hours to complete, but she says that one physical phenomenon is key: gravity.

As soon as a domino is set upright, it stores potential energy in its position, which is dependent on gravity (see Converting Energy). When the first domino falls, much of this potential energy converts into kinetic energy, which gives it the force to push the next domino over and start the chain reaction. The energy continues to travel from domino to domino until the last one falls, allowing Hevesh to complete her incredible designs.

In addition to being a fun and educational family activity, Dominoes also offer valuable learning opportunities for students. The game can help improve motor skills, counting, early addition and fractions. In addition, the game is a great way to develop social skills and turn-taking. Whether you’re playing Dominoes with your friends or on your own, this classic game will provide hours of enjoyment and entertainment.

Although there are a wide variety of different games that can be played with dominoes, the most popular are layout games and scoring games. Layout games are a form of domino puzzle in which the player places tiles on a grid pattern to create chains that run across the whole layout and down each side of the grid. Each tile must have a matching end to another domino in the layout in order to be placed, and additional tiles can only be placed on open ends of the grid.

Normally, only the long sides of a domino are open for play, but some games allow additional tiles to be placed on the short ends as well. Larger domino sets usually feature a grid that is marked with pips to indicate which ends are open for play. The number of pips on a domino is usually shown in the shape of a circle, though some manufacturers produce sets that display the pips as more readable Arabic numerals.