A domino is a small rectangular block used as gaming pieces. It has a group of spots on one side and is blank or identically patterned on the other. A domino can be paired with other dominoes to form a chain reaction and the player that creates the longest line of dominoes wins. The word domino is derived from the Latin dominus, meaning “master.” Earlier senses of the word referred to a monastic hood or to a hooded costume worn with a mask during a masquerade party.
Dominoes are played all over the world, with many games having their origins in Latin America. Even the Inuits, a group of Native people living in northern North America, play games that are similar to Western dominoes.
When you play domino, you have to be careful not to push a domino so far that it falls over. This is because each domino has potential energy, based on its position, and this potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy as it falls. This chain reaction can cause other dominoes to fall over as well.
While the chain reaction is one of the more interesting aspects of domino, there are other ways to play the game, and each variation has its own rules and scoring systems. For example, in double-twelve domino, the first tile laid down by a player must be a double, and subsequent tiles must be either doubles or triples.
The earliest recorded use of the word domino in the English language was in the mid-18th Century, and it was probably introduced to Britain by French prisoners toward the end of the same period. By the late 19th Century, dominoes were a common sight in British inns and taverns.
Originally, dominoes were used only for positional games, in which each player placed their tiles edge to edge against another. Each tile had a number of pips on its edge, and the player won when they were able to match adjacent tiles by number or form some specific sum.
Later, dominoes were used for a series of puzzle types. The earliest of these, documented in a book entitled Chu sz yam (Investigations on the Traditions of All Things), was invented by a statesman who presented it to Emperor Hui Tsung in 1120 CE. Later, the game was introduced to China via Japan, and eventually spread worldwide.
Domino’s strategy was to put its stores near college campuses so that it could capitalize on students looking for quick, affordable pizza. This was a key part of its success, and it allowed it to grow rapidly until, in 1977, it had over 200 locations. Since then, it has expanded its business to include a wide variety of delivery services and has also begun exploring drones as part of its fleet of delivery vehicles. However, despite the apparent novelty of these new technologies, Domino’s remains a family-owned company that continues to be led by its original founder, Tom Monaghan.
