Billiards - You'd Be Surprised What You'll Find
Billiards. There was a time when if you looked up billiards on
the Internet you'd find instruction on how to play the game and
the different variations of billiards that there are but today,
that is no longer true. Today, if you look up the word billiards
on a search engine you will find mostly, the following:
Billiards and the chaos theory. You will be amazed at how many
articles you will find on this science. Chaos theory, in a
nutshell, is the study of unpredictable and complex dynamic
systems that are highly sensitive to small changes in external
conditions, at least according to Webster's definition. So what
exactly does that mean and what does it have to do with
billiards?
Chaos theory as it applies to billiards is basically the theory,
and this is simplified of course, that when you strike the cue
ball with the cue stick and it gets sent hurtling towards the
rack of balls, once it hits those balls they will react in a
random pattern rather than is a predictable one. There is
something, of course, to be said for chaos theory as it applies
to billiards. If you've played the game and are any good at it
you are sure to notice that you can hit the first ball in the
rack in the same place with the same force and yet it seems that
each time you do so the balls in the rack react in a different
way. Strong supporters of the angle of reflection equals angle
of incidence theory will of course argue this, saying that we
never can really hit the lead ball in the same place with the
same force more than once because we are human and fallible.
This argument is likely to go on for a long time.
The point however is you would be amazed at the number of
articles about billiards and chaos theory.
The other main thing you will find when doing a search on
billiards is billiards simulations. not just with actual games
but web sites with vector designs and square shapes with
coordinates that you can plug in and visually see the path of
the billiard ball after it is struck by the cue stick. For those
of you who are mathematically adept you can change a number of
the factors in these simulations such as the number of sides on
the table itself. You can have as few as 3, as in a triangle,
and in some programs as many as 10 sides for your billiards
table. Of course you can also plug in your standard 4 sided
table.
Other variables you can change are x and y coordinate values, x
and y vector values, the speed of the ball and the number of
iterations, meaning how many times the ball will bounce around
the table until you wish it to stop.
Then of course there are the actual billiard simulation games
themselves which are very realistic these days. As to what
theory they are programmed from, that is anybody's guess.
Yes, looking up billiards on the Internet will find you some
strange stuff. Want to actually learn about the game and how to
play it?
Just type in "billiards instruction" and ignore the results that
somehow creep their way in from the other categories.