Learning About Dominoes

Domino is a game of chance and skill. Players place dominoes on a table, each having his own color of tiles. The goal is to make a line of dominoes that will reach across the whole table before all of them are knocked over by one another. The first player to do so wins. While this game can be played by a single person, it is most often enjoyed with friends or family. There are many different variations of the game, with each having its own rules and scoring systems.

The word domino derives from the Latin “dominium,” meaning power or authority. The earliest sense of the word, however, is connected to a long black hooded cloak worn over a priest’s surplice at a masquerade or carnival. It is also possible that the ebony dominoes with ivory faces resembled this garment.

For students learning about addition, this game can help reinforce the commutative property of addition. Students will observe that the total number of dots on a domino is the same regardless of whether it is oriented as a vertical or horizontal set of dominoes. Students will also use the domino to learn the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. This is an appropriate task for students in kindergarten through second grade.

Scientists agree that when you pick up a domino and stand it upright, the forces of gravity pull on it, giving the domino potential energy. When you then knock over the domino, much of its potential energy is converted to kinetic energy, which causes other dominoes to fall.

A common misconception is that a domino needs to have two matching ends to be played. This is not always true, and in fact a double can be placed cross-ways in the layout, straddling the end of the tile it is being played to. However, the rules of most domino games do not allow additional tiles to be placed on either side of a double.

The most common type of domino is a double-nine, with a maximum number of dots on each end of 55. This is not a full set, however, and larger sets can be extended by adding additional pairs of ends with different numbers of dots. The most common extended sets are double-nine, double-12 and double-15.

Whether it’s an off-the-cuff draft or a meticulous outline, plotting your novel is the process of setting the dominoes in motion. The key to writing a strong story is creating a chain reaction, with each scene setting up the next in an unbroken sequence that builds toward the big climax. This is known as the Domino Effect.

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