MarkTreg
2nd November 2006 - 04:57 PM
Anybody have any ideas?
kaneda
13th November 2006 - 01:18 PM
Kick? Snooker balls are made with a very hard outer surface so as to transfer virtually all momentum to another ball on contact. The game would not work unless that happened. Is that what you meant?
neil
5th May 2009 - 12:42 AM
good question!
i'm curious too. my guess is "stiction". (see Wikipedia - sort of "sticking + friction")
i'm a little surprised it hasn't been nailed yet.
if it is stiction, cleaning the balls wouldn't help much. willie thorn was saying it didn't happen so much in the past, with heavier balls & thicker cloths. i would suspect the material of the balls as the most obvious - needs experiments with different materials. i would suggest PTFE, at least for the cue ball.
prometheus
5th May 2009 - 02:50 PM
Players use chalk on their cues and if it happens that the chalk mark on the cue ball is the bit that contacts with the object ball then you can get unexpectedly high friction during the contact, causing a "kick." It's also why quite often you'll see the players asking for the cue ball to be cleaned after getting a kick.
Ron
5th May 2009 - 04:17 PM
The new show on Discovery Channel "Time Warp" has an episode with billiards (this side of the pond!). You may be able to find streaming video, which, even if it doesn't completely answer your question, you'll enjoy, I'm sure.
Peace,
Ron