Dominoes is a game played with tiles that can be used to create various layouts or configurations. It can be played as a single player, as a team, or as a partnership game.
It is an excellent activity to engage students in physical activities and help them develop hand-eye coordination. It can also be used for decimal rounding practice.
Origin
Dominoes are small, rectangular blocks used for playing games. Their identifying marks on one side, known as pips, are similar to those on dice.
While it is not clear how dominoes evolved from dice, they are clearly related. Unlike Western dominoes, which use only the unique rolls of two six-sided dice, Chinese dominoes are a representation of all possible combinations (or “faces”) of a pair of dice.
Traditionally, dominoes were made from wood or bone. But craftsmen in the early 19th century abandoned bone for “vegetable ivory,” a hard, close-grained palm nut. This material has been affixed to thin pieces of ebony to form dominoes.
Rules
The game of domino is played by matching tiles with a number showing at one end to the next tile in a chain. The chain can be made end to end, crosswise or across the matching number.
The open ends of the tiles are counted, and points are awarded when the pips on the open ends equal any multiple of three or five. This is called “stitching up” the ends.
A popular variation is spinner dominoes. This version of the game uses a double-nine set with additional tiles containing a “spinner” symbol, which indicates a wild tile.
A common tactic in this game is to block tiles with the numbers 1-6, which can be used to prevent opponents from playing certain tile suits. This strategy can be particularly useful when you have a double tile that can be blocked by your opponent’s weaker suit.
Materials
Dominoes are small, rectangular game pieces that have been made from a variety of materials over the centuries. These include bone, wood, plastic, ivory, and stone.
Most domino sets consist of 28 tiles with 6-6 to 0-0 markings. Several more massive sets have up to 58 tiles.
They are commonly used for a wide variety of games, including doubles and singles. Some domino sets also contain spinners, which help to hold the ebony and ivory together when shuffled.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, it’s important to know what your dominoes are made of so that you can choose the best ones for your needs. Choosing the wrong type of domino can lead to frustration and even a failed toppling project.
Variations
There are several different variations of domino, each with its own rules. Variants vary in how tiles are laid down and how the line of play is formed.
In Straight Dominoes, players take turns drawing seven dominoes from the boneyard and laying them end to end. When all of the pips on each end of the dominoes are exposed, players earn points.
The standard domino set consists of 28 tiles with the numbers 0 to 6 on each one. However, some variants use double-nine or double-twelve sets.
Another popular variation is Chicken Foot dominoes. This starts as a normal game but if you lay down a domino that matches the ends of a double, it automatically completes a’single chickenfoot’.
Scoring
The scoring system for domino is very simple: the number of exposed ends on each tile counts towards its score. A blank does not count as a point.
One of the most common rules is that any domino that is exposed sideways on the end of the chain scores both ends. If the exposed end has a double four, then the two ends are scored as eight (8) and two (2) giving a total of ten (10) points.
There are also several other scoring systems for dominoes. One is the Holsey and Tidwell method. The method starts with two lines crossing to form a large X, which is worth 5 points and then continues with four small x’s which together represent the same number of points as the large X.