Domino is a small rectangular block of wood or plastic that bears an arrangement of dots like those on dice on one face and is blank on the other. When a domino is tipped, it causes the rest of the set to fall over in a chain reaction, which continues until all of the dominoes have fallen. A person can play many games with dominoes, including drawing games, matching games, and scoring games. Dominoes can be stacked on end in long lines and can be used to create complex geometric patterns. A person can also use dominoes to make simple designs, such as a house or a train. Domino is also a term used to describe something that is part of a larger pattern or system, such as a political revolution or an economic crash.

When a person describes someone as being sugar and spice, they mean that the person is kind and friendly. A person can also be described as being domino and pips, meaning that they are strong and powerful.

To play a game of domino, a person starts by drawing tiles from a bag or pile and placing them on the table in front of him. If a player draws a double, he must place the next tile to his right of that double so that both tiles touch each other. If a player can’t play a tile, he must “knock” the table and pass play to his opponent. A player may win by being the first to finish playing all of his tiles or by winning a tie with his opponent.

The rules of domino vary by game, but most involve a domino that has a value of six pips on one side and no pips on the other. Identifying the value of a domino is easier when the domino has been marked with Arabic numerals, which are more recognizable to people who don’t know the numbers in Latin.

After a domino has been placed, other players can either draw or place additional tiles on the table. The winner of a game is the player who has the highest total value of all spots on his remaining tiles. A game of domino can be played with as few as two tiles or as many as 91. A game with a double-twelve or double-nine set has four players who pick 12 tiles each at the start of the match.

Dominoes have inertia, which means that they will not move unless some outside force is applied. When a domino is tipped, this changes the energy of the domino into kinetic energy, which causes the other pieces to topple over. The more dominoes are stacked, the more energy is needed to tip them over. A person can see this effect in domino shows, where a professional builder sets up hundreds of thousands of individual dominoes in careful sequence and then topples them all with the nudge of just one.