When a domino falls, it transfers potential energy to kinetic energy. This kinetic energy travels to the next domino, providing the push it needs to fall. It then continues traveling from domino to domino until all of the pieces have fallen. This process is known as the Domino Effect. It’s what makes this toy so enduringly popular—and it also explains why the largest domino setups take several nail-biting minutes to complete.

Traditionally, dominoes have been made of bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother-of-pearl) or a dark hardwood such as ebony, with contrasting black or white pips inlaid or painted on them. In recent years, however, more and more sets have been produced from polymer materials such as plastic or resin. Such sets are less expensive, more durable, and have a more attractive look than traditional wood-based sets.

There are many different games that can be played with dominoes. In most of them, a player lays a domino of one color on the edge of a square or circular table, then places other tiles around it in a matching pattern. The resulting chain of tiles, or domino line, is then manipulated to form different shapes and structures.

When playing with more than four players, the number of available dominoes quickly diminishes. To combat this, most domino sets are “extended” by introducing ends with greater numbers of spots, thus increasing the number of possible combinations of tiles. Typical extended sets include double-nine, double-12 and double-15.

The earliest dominoes were small, rectangular blocks of wood or ivory with a pattern of dots that resembled those on dice. As the game became more popular, larger sets were developed, and people began arranging them to create artistic designs or to play a variety of different games.

Some dominoes have only a single color of pips, while others have a combination of colors or even a mosaic design. In addition, some sets have numbers printed on their faces instead of the traditional dots.

A domino set typically consists of 28 tiles with the same number of pips on each end. Depending on the rules of the game being played, the first player may draw any number of these tiles from the stock. Then, according to the rules of the game, he or she must add these tiles to his or her hand.

In some games, the number of tiles left in a player’s hand at the end of a hand or game is used as part of the winning score. This scoring method is sometimes called byeing.

When a player is unable to play his or her final domino, it’s often called “chipping out.” If the player cannot play the last tile in his or her hand, he or she must “knock” or rap the table to pass play to the other player. The player who knocks the most dominoes out wins. However, in some games, it’s not necessary to knock out all of the dominoes.