Domino

Dominoes are small rectangular tiles with varying numbers of spots used to play tile-based games. There are many varieties using different tile sets and rules. Most domino tiles, however, have roughly 2-to-1 proportions, with each half of each domino containing spots arranged as they are on six-sided dice; the set generally contains tiles with all possible combinations of two numbers (for example, one often refers to the tiles by the number of spots on each half: a "1-5" tile or a "2-2" tile). English/American? dominoes include "blank" sides; Chinese dominoes do not, but duplicate some whole tiles. English/American? dominoes can also be purchased in larger sets with numbers of spots that go up to nine or twelve per side.

Other than playing games of strategy, another common pastime using domino tiles is to stand them on edge in long lines, then topple the first tile, which falls on and topples the second, etc., resulting in all of the tiles falling. Arrangements of thousands of tiles have been made that took several minutes to fall. By analogy, similar phenomena of chains of small events each causing similar events leading to eventual catastrophe are called domino effects.

See also: [Rules of domino games]?, Chinese dominoes, domino effect, tetromino

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