How Dominoes Work
Dominoes are small rectangular tiles with an arrangement of spots, similar to those on a die, on one side and blank or identically patterned on the other. They are traditionally made from bone, ivory, or a dark wood such as ebony with contrasting white or black pips (inlaid or painted). In many games, dominoes are placed edge to edge so that the adjacent faces match in number of pips or form some other specified total. This sets up a chain reaction that can continue until all the pieces have been matched or “knocked down.”
When someone picks up a domino and stands it upright, they are resisting the force of gravity and storing potential energy in it. When the domino falls, much of this energy is converted to kinetic energy in the form of motion, and this energy causes other dominoes to topple over one another in a cascade. This is what makes playing domino so exciting.
While there are many different games of domino, the most common ones use a standard double-twelve set of 91 tiles. With this set, four players each choose twelve dominoes to play with at the start of the game. The rest of the dominoes on the table are left untouched, as they may be used to create new chains and add to existing ones.
Each turn begins with a player putting down a domino on the table. The next player then places a tile to the right of the first one on its long side, or to the left of it on its short side, if the domino has a long side. The next player continues in this way until a domino is placed to the end of a line of other tiles that has already been started. Then, the players begin laying their dominoes in a snake-line fashion according to the rules of the game they are playing.
Because the shape of a domino chain develops based on the whims of the players, it is not uncommon for it to become very long or very short, depending on the improvisational skills of the group. Most players try to keep their chains going until the last tile is played and the game ends. When this happens, the players compare their remaining tiles to determine who has the least amount of dominoes and is the winner.
A labor shortage has been a major obstacle for Domino’s, which is trying to address its high turnover rate by retraining workers and offering incentives. It’s also experimenting with driverless delivery cars and robots. These initiatives are not only meant to solve Domino’s delivery problems, but they also show the company is committed to modernizing its brand image and addressing customer complaints. In the long term, this will be a crucial advantage over competitors that do not have these capabilities. I see no reason why the Domino’s business model won’t succeed, even with the current challenges.