Domino is a game played with domino tiles, a type of tile that has an arrangement of dots or pips on one side and is blank or identically patterned on the other. Each domino has an identifier, such as a letter or number, that corresponds to its position on the table. The pieces are set up so that each end of a row shows a different number, and players place more tiles on the ends of the rows as they play. The game is won by a player who reaches a specified target score before opponents do.
Domino has a long history and many variations. It can be played by two, four, or more people and is generally a team-based activity. A team may try to complete a specific task, such as building a structure using a pre-determined plan or laying a path of tiles that forms a certain pattern when they fall. The game can also be played in a more competitive mode with players trying to win a race to get their dominoes to the finish line first.
A domino can have many forms, including straight lines, curved lines that form shapes when they fall, grids that form pictures, and 3D structures like towers and pyramids. There are also specialized domino constructions such as mosaics and art pieces that use multiple tiles to create designs and images when they are flipped over. In addition, there are a wide variety of games that can be played with dominoes, including scoring games, blocking games, and drawing games.
The most popular games are played with a standard domino set that contains 28 tiles, but other sets can be used for other types of games. Most of these games involve blocking other players or scoring points. In scoring games, the winner is the player who lays a domino that shows a matching number to the number on the opposing player’s domino. Some games require that each player chip out his or her last domino before playing, while others have a limit on the number of rounds to determine the winner.
Hevesh explains that, just like dominoes on the table, each component of the model has inertia, which is its resistance to movement when no outside force is acting on it. But a tiny nudge is all it takes to tip the first domino over and begin a chain reaction.
Physicists agree that the energy of standing dominoes is transformed into the energy of motion when they are knocked down. Stephen Morris, a University of Toronto professor, says that when you pick up a domino and hold it upright, “it stores some potential energy in its position.” But the moment that it falls, much of that potential energy is converted into kinetic energy in the motion of the falling dominoes.
In a computer model, code and data are stored together on a server, and the server executes the code when it’s needed. This centralization of execution facilitates scaling and allows developers to create models quickly. It’s also a powerful way to manage collaboration, since the server can control access and merge changes, and serve results and diagnostics through a clean web interface.
