A domino is a small rectangular wooden or plastic block with one side blank and the other marked by dots resembling those on dice. It is part of a set used to play various games, either by placing it on a table or arranging it so that the ends of adjacent tiles match. The number of matching pairs on each end determines the total points scored for that tile. Dominoes are most often used in two main types of play: blocking games and scoring games. A player wins a game by being the first to score all of his or her tiles.
The word domino comes from the Latin dominium, meaning “little king.” Dominoes have become a popular symbol of luck and good fortune because they symbolize the idea that small events can have great effects. The term “domino effect” is also used to describe how small events can affect an entire system. This is because of the way that dominoes connect and influence one another in a chain reaction.
Dominos are commonly made of ivory, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), bone, or a dark hardwood such as ebony with black or white inlaid pips. They can also be made of a variety of natural materials including stone (e.g., marble, granite or soapstone); other woods such as spruce, fir, oak or cedar; metals such as brass or pewter; and ceramic clay.
Many games are played with dominoes, both classic and modern. The most common domino sets are double six, which contain 28 tiles, and double nine, which contains 55 tiles. Larger sets are available, but they are used mostly for games involving multiple players or for players who want to play long domino games. Each enlarged set adds three more tiles and increases the maximum number of matching ends on a single tile from three to seven.
Physicist Stephen Morris explains that when a domino is standing upright, it stores potential energy in its shape. This energy is released as the domino falls, and much of it is converted into kinetic energy in the form of friction between the domino and the table or floor on which it stands.
When Hevesh creates her amazing installations, she spends hours testing each section before putting it together. This allows her to spot any problems and make corrections before the final show. Some of her largest domino arrangements take several nail-biting minutes to fall, and they can easily be ruined by a single mistake.
Domino provides centralized execution, which makes it easy to track code + data = results and ensure that you can trace from a result back to the code and data that produced it. It also enables you to scale, by running jobs across multiple machines and scheduling them as recurring jobs. And, because Domino is built on open source technology, you can use it on-premises or as a fully-managed cloud service.