Dominoes are small, rectangular game pieces with anywhere from 0 to 6 dots. They are used in the game of dominoes, where players set them up to create intricate patterns. When one domino falls, it can knock down hundreds and even thousands of others. This effect is called the domino effect, and it’s a great example of how one event can have a ripple effect that causes other events to happen.

Dominos are also often used to make shapes. For instance, people like to arrange them into hearts or circles. They can also be lined up to form lines or angular patterns. Some people even use them to draw pictures. Dominos are popular with children and adults alike, and many people enjoy competing to see who can build the most elaborate pattern or row of dominoes.

There are many different games that can be played with dominoes, but most of them involve a chain of dominoes being placed on the table. A player then plays a tile onto the table, positioning it so that one end of the domino chain matches the other. When this happens, a new tile is then played on top of the existing ones, and the resulting chain grows longer.

A typical domino set has 28 tiles, but larger sets exist, and there are also some variants of the game that can be played with more or less than the standard number of tiles. The most common types of domino games are blocking and scoring games. Blocking games are those in which a player places a domino such that the touching ends of each side match: for example, a single tile is considered to match a double when its total number of pips is the same as the number shown on both the exposed and hidden sides.

The scoring games in which a player attempts to place tiles such that their pips add up to a particular value are usually known as the counting or numbering games. The most commonly available domino sets have two suits of numbers — the suit of six pips and the suit of nine pips — although some games are also played with three-pip and zero-suit dominoes.

In addition to these traditional types of domino games, there are a number of puzzles that can be played with the tiles. These are typically based on the arithmetic properties of the dominoes, such as the number of lines of tiles and tile halves that can be made.

There is a great deal of skill involved in creating domino constructions and stories. For example, a good story needs to be interesting but not overly long (which would slow the reader down), and it must have scenes that advance the plot toward or away from its goal. It also helps if the dominoes are spaced correctly, because otherwise some of the energy will go into friction instead of flowing from one domino to another (see Domino Effect).