Dominoes are a popular game to play with family and friends. They can also be used to teach math skills. These games can be adjusted for a variety of grades and needs. Using the right tools makes it easy for students to learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide with dominoes.
A domino is a tile with one or more squared sides and numbered dots called pips. The value of a domino is determined by its number of pips. A domino with more pips is considered “heavier” than a domino with fewer pips. Depending on the rules of the game being played, the heaviest tile may be used to start the first round of play or the lowest double wins.
Usually, when playing dominoes, the players place their tiles side-by-side in a line across the table. This configuration is often called a string, layout or line of play. Each domino in the line must have a matching open end to another domino. The open ends are also sometimes referred to as “spinners.” For example, if the line of play is 3-5, 5-5 and 5-1, then each domino in the chain would have an open end of 3 and 1, which would count as a total of 4 (3+1).
Each player, in turn, places a domino into position on the string of play such that it touches both ends of the previous domino. The player must then either match that end or “knock” the open end of the previous domino, which passes play to the next player. Normally, the first player to chip out his last domino is the winner of that round.
After each round of play, the players will reshuffle the deck of dominoes and draw again. Some rules allow players to buy additional dominoes from the stock. The amount of pips left in the stock is then added to the score of the winner of the round. There are some domino games that have the rule that all tiles in the stock may be bought and others where only a certain percentage of the available pips can be purchased.
A player who draws more than he is permitted to take from the stock may be “blocked” from continuing to play the game. If this happens, the other players may decide to continue play without the overdrawn hand. In most cases, the overdrawn hand is then discarded and the stock is reshuffled.
The number of possible combinations of ends is limited by the number of dominoes in a standard set. This is why many domino sets have a number of “extended” sets that increase the number of possible ends and thus the total number of unique combinations of dominoes. Typically, these extended sets have double-nine (55 tiles), double-12, double-15 and double-18 dominoes. In practice, larger extended sets are rare, as is the case with double-21, which is theoretically possible but would require a large number of dominoes. The maximum size of a domino set is generally agreed upon as double-18.