Domino – A Game of Chance and SkillDomino – A Game of Chance and Skill
Domino is a game of chance and skill. You can build straight lines or curved ones, grids that form pictures when they fall, or 3D structures like towers and pyramids. You can even use them to make designs on a flat surface, such as paper or a wall.
A domino is a small square piece of clay or plastic, normally twice as long as it is wide. It has a line in the middle to divide it visually into two squares, each bearing an arrangement of spots, or pips, as those on a die. The pips on one side of the domino are marked with a number, while the other side may be blank or patterned identically to the identifying marks. Most dominoes are made from wood, but other natural materials such as stone (e.g., marble, granite or soapstone), ivory and metals have also been used.
Each domino originally represented one of the 21 possible combinations of the pips on two thrown dice. As sets became larger, they were “extended” to include more pips. For example, the classic 28-piece European domino set contains all combinations except double-nine, which uses three of the six pips on each end. As the numbers of pips on each end increased, it became harder to identify each domino by sight alone, so many large sets used more readable Arabic numerals instead of pips.
The most famous of these extension sets is the double-twelve (91 tiles). The earliest known dominoes were made from wood, but over time they have been manufactured from other materials as well. Among these were bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory and ebony, with the pips usually inlaid or painted.
In addition to being a great way to pass the time, domino can be used to teach fundamental skills, including planning and problem-solving. Students can build simple patterns of dominoes to learn the sequence of one domino affecting another, or they can create more complex designs and reactions before a live audience. In fact, there are even shows where builders compete to construct the most intricate and imaginative domino reactions or effects before an enthusiastic crowd.
Domino’s growth is due in part to a focus on one of its core values: “Champion Our Customers.” This means that the company listens to customer feedback and makes changes based on it. In the case of Domino’s, this meant putting pizzerias in the right locations, such as near college campuses, where their target market can easily access them. It also meant listening to employees and incorporating their ideas into new policies, such as relaxed dress codes and expanded leadership training programs. It’s not surprising that the company won a Detroit Free Press Top Workplaces award for this in 2013.