A domino is a tile that bears an arrangement of spots or pips on its face. The number of pips indicates the rank or weight of the tile, which is sometimes used as an indicator of value for trading and other purposes. A domino is normally twice as long as it is wide, but some special shapes can be made. Dominoes are most popular in the world, and many different games can be played using them. Some involve counting the pips on winning tiles and blocking opponent play, while others use scoring rules or duplicate card games. Dominoes also are used for art projects, like building flat arrangements of stacked pieces that form pictures and can be viewed from all sides.

For those who enjoy building with dominoes, it is possible to create impressive structures involving straight or curved lines, grids that form patterns, or 3-D towers and pyramids. Those who create such works of art are often called domino artists. In addition to being fun, domino constructions can help people with fine motor skills develop their grip strength, while helping them improve coordination and visual perception.

Dominoes have been around for a long time and are used in numerous ways. The game arrived in Britain in the late 18th Century from France, and was a popular entertainment in inns and taverns at that time. It has also been popular with children for generations, and it is still widely available in toy stores. Some schools have begun to incorporate dominoes into educational activities, such as forming letters and words, building a timeline of historical events, and developing maths skills by calculating the number of dominoes required for various constructions.

There are even domino websites where visitors can construct and display their own creations. These sites feature photos of domino structures, along with instructions on how the pieces were placed to achieve particular effects. Some of the photographs are simply beautiful to look at, while others are a testament to the incredible ingenuity and patience of the builders who created them.

When it comes to writing, there are some parallels between the idea of a domino effect and how scenes in novels or nonfiction work. If an author, especially a pantser who doesn’t use outlines or Scrivener, fails to consider how one scene will affect the next, she might end up with a chain of scenes that don’t build tension or provide any new information. These scenes may seem insignificant on their own, but they can make the whole story collapse like a domino effect if they’re not carefully planned.

Domino’s CEO David Brandon knew that if his company was to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it would need to embrace some changes and fast. One of those changes was a new emphasis on listening to employees and addressing complaints quickly. When Domino’s CEO James Doyle took over the business, he stayed true to this value and implemented new policies, including a relaxed dress code and employee-focused leadership training programs.