[HN Gopher] Billiards is a good game (1975)
___________________________________________________________________
Billiards is a good game (1975)
Author : chucksmash
Score : 70 points
Date : 2024-09-14 04:17 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mag.uchicago.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (mag.uchicago.edu)
| orionblastar wrote:
| My father, who died in 2010, would play Yahoo Games Pool and was
| good at it. It is all angles and physics and good for the brain.
| landedfolk wrote:
| Yahoo pool was ace. Fond memories of 2006 I think...bunch of
| devs taking 5 minutes off to play.
| tsimionescu wrote:
| This is a complete tangent, but I would note that we don't have
| physical models nearly good enough to actually compute the way
| billiards balls (or even worse, snooker balls) interact with
| each other and the fabric on the table. It's all guesswork and
| experience, mostly. The interactions between the balls and the
| fabric are critical for the vast majority of the movements, and
| they are far too complex for any physical first-principles
| based model to capture.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Is this because of imperfections in the fabric? Golf has a
| similar situation where if you use a machine to roll a ball
| on a perfect line and speed, sometimes it won't go in. This
| is because of imperfections in the gradient and that grass
| changes constantly as it slowly grows and bends towards
| light, etc.
|
| Wow now that's a tangent to a tangent!
| fredzel wrote:
| There was still ongoing dispute between pool and snooker
| players whether playing side spin on white ball affects
| angle of the object ball hit by the white (ignoring
| deflection, just the spin transfer).
|
| In real life it depends on the tables bed, banks, cloth
| (different material, speed, whether it's clean or dirty,
| it's 'mileage', air temperature and humidity...), balls,
| cue and of course human factor.
| cowboylowrez wrote:
| seems like you could test this. simply line up a very
| easy (and repeatable) combination shot with the two
| object balls really close to each other and vary the
| contact and spin as needed. the closer the cue ball to
| the first object ball will mean that you could minimise
| the impact of deflection. have to try it next time I'm
| near a pool table!
|
| I've always assumed that deflection, swerve and throw
| were a given but sounds like they're debating the "throw"
| part?
| tsimionescu wrote:
| Not imperfections, the fabric itself. If the balls were on
| a frictionless surface, their movement would be completely
| different, they would barely spin. Much of their movement
| is caused by their interaction with the fabric. But that is
| very hard to model from Newton's laws of motion.
| lupire wrote:
| Why are snooker balls harder to model?
| tsimionescu wrote:
| Not the balls themselves, but I believe the fabric is
| thicker, and thus has a bigger effect on the balls' motion,
| on snooker tables compared to pool. There are also other
| difficulties, such as the cue having a smaller tip that
| brings more variability in the spin imparted to a ball, but
| those I think are less relevant to the ability to model the
| game from first principles (Newton's laws of motion).
| imglorp wrote:
| If anyone is seeking serious answers about the variables, the
| first bible is "Byrne's New Standard Book Of Pool And
| Billiards."
|
| And it's not just the cloth and balls (rolling and static
| friction, dirt, ball elasticity...), it's also the rails,
| which rarely exhibit "angle of reflection == angle of
| incidence" due to more complexities.
| emmelaich wrote:
| Huh it's still around. https://www.yahoo.com/games/play/pool-
| lucky-break-9-ball/
|
| Looks like fun.
| jb1991 wrote:
| > The waitress told us he drew sketches of the faculty he did not
| care to eat with. She said they all had long noses.
|
| I'm trying to understand this comment. I can't tell if this is
| somehow a vague hint of an anti-Semitic attitude? It's a weird
| thing to say or write in modern times if not.
| Someone wrote:
| > I can't tell if this is somehow a vague hint of an anti-
| Semitic attitude?
|
| Doesn't seem likely.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_A._Michelson#Life:
| _"Michelson was born in Strelno, Posen, Kingdom of Prussia
| (modern-day Strzelno, Poland), to Jewish parents [...] His
| family was non-religious, and Michelson himself was a lifelong
| agnostic"_
| saagarjha wrote:
| Considering he was Jewish it seems unlikely?
| jb1991 wrote:
| You have to admit, it's a strange comment though.
| pixxel wrote:
| If you're looking for it.
| tiznow wrote:
| Could be a physiognomy angle.
| bulbosaur123 wrote:
| It's fine. Stop seeing race, ethnicity everywhere. Just be
| more chill and not get triggered by everything, we don't
| have to police language. People should be able to say
| whatever they want
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| On the other hand, OP asked a question and you seem to be
| the one policing language in response.
| tom_ wrote:
| Add me to the list of people wondering about it too. An odd
| throwaway line, something of a non sequitur, some
| information we didn't really need to know - and yet, it was
| included. (And the noses referred to again later.) But
| without further elaboration. Clearly we are supposed to
| take something from this - but what?
|
| And I also considered the anti-semitism angle. It's not
| like the hook-nosed hand-wringing cartoon Jew isn't an
| extremely well-known anti-semitic stereotype, and it's not
| like the idea that somebody might be anti-semitic is hugely
| surprising. I don't think this thought is exactly some
| ridiculous flight of fancy!
|
| Turns out Michelson was a Jew though. Well, maybe that
| _was_ just his art style then! But now I 'm even more
| confused about the inclusion of this information.
|
| It is a strange comment.
| Etheryte wrote:
| In many cultures this signifies being a fool, e.g. think
| Pinocchio. Similar connotations exist for a wide variety of
| exaggerated proportions you might see in caricatures. So in
| this context it seems he didn't think highly of the faculty
| members at an intellectual level.
| calmbonsai wrote:
| I forget the name of the specific art style, but "exagerated
| noses" is a known caricature motif. You can see this vividly
| depicted in the opening sequence of the BBC's "Yes Minister"
| TV series from the '80s.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDEMthILzpA
| emmelaich wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Scarfe
|
| also did drawings for Pink Floyd's The Wall.
| xandrius wrote:
| Jumping to that conclusion does require a very honed skill of
| looking for outrage.
|
| I'd be curious to know what they mean but until then I'd just
| take it as a pun and move on.
| GJim wrote:
| > Jumping to that conclusion does require a very honed skill
| of looking for outrage.
|
| Welcome to the modern internet.
| namdnay wrote:
| It's a good thing they didn't jump to any conclusion, and
| asked a question
| lupire wrote:
| It's a reporting of a report of an observation of portrait
| drawings.
|
| Theres no way to know what it means from the text; you'd have
| to ask the artist.
| rpmisms wrote:
| "I saw a monkey in this guy's house, which made me think of
| black people. Therefore, he was racist".
|
| Assigning your own biases to other people is a great way to
| lose friends and influence nobody.
| pimlottc wrote:
| I wondered too. It may simply indicate that the portraits were
| (intentionally) unflattering.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| I like that this was published to promote "A River Runs Through
| It," but they either hadn't quite decided on the name or
| misprinted it as "The River Runs Through It."
|
| It's also interesting that lunch was organized in a way where
| graduate students watched the professors eat, and professors had
| recess after lunch.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| I hadn't read the byline until I read your comment. Young Men
| and Fire is also a highly worthwhile read about the Mann Gulch
| fire. I'm delighted to have this article to read in a Saturday
| morning, because Norman Maclean's prose delights me.
| lupire wrote:
| Amazon's page (and URL) covers all angles. All hail SEO!
|
| https://www.amazon.com/River-Runs-Through-Norman-Maclean/dp/...
| osrec wrote:
| A more difficult variant is snooker, played on a 12ft x 6ft table
| with tighter pockets and smaller balls.
|
| It can be frustrating to play well, but when you "get it", it
| really is a beautiful game to play, and a real mental workout.
|
| For anyone interested, Ronnie O'Sullivan is the best ever player,
| and his YouTube highlights are worth a watch:
| https://youtu.be/PE8XPHnCNpg - makes the game look incredibly
| easy, but I assure you, it's not!
| jimkleiber wrote:
| Wow this felt magical to watch, thank you for sharing it.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| Ronnie might be the best but I've always enjoyed Mark Williams
| style of play more. The whole of the "Class of 92" are beyond
| special though.
| osrec wrote:
| Class of 92 are indeed very special. Williams is still doing
| amazingly well - just got to the final of the Saudi masters,
| and nearly clinched the deciding frame. Not bad for someone
| nearly 50 years old!
| lupire wrote:
| Billiards doesn't have pockets. Pool ("pocket billiards") has
| pockets.
|
| You can see a billiard table in the background of the photo,
| behind the pool table.
| osrec wrote:
| English billiards does in fact have pockets, carom billiards
| does not.
| fredzel wrote:
| It's also one of the hardest games (sports) mentally, you can sit
| for a few minutes or few breakes and all you can do is wait for
| opponent to make a mistake - or play a safe. All you can do is
| try to stay focused and positive, not sulking over mistake you
| just made that might've lost you the whole match, to not mess up
| a chance when it comes.
| jgalt212 wrote:
| Sort of like batting against peak Pedro. Just wait for him to
| err, if not you're toast.
| Towaway69 wrote:
| Basically I've been playing billards all my life. Never really
| got better, playing at the same level for years. Meaning that
| getting more than two or three balls at one go was a rarity.
|
| Until one day when I stopped looking at the white when playing
| a shot and instead I started looking at the target ball. It's
| weird that it took me so long to make that little change but it
| completely changed my skill level.
|
| Something else I realised was that the less time I think about
| a shot the better the shot comes. As you said, it's a very
| mental game.
|
| And I realised that it's all about placement: where do I want
| the white to be _after_ playing a ball into the pocket.
| aetherson wrote:
| Do you mean pool?
| sfilmeyer wrote:
| >In 1928, three years before his death, everyone said of
| Michelson, "He measured light," and today he is one of the few
| Nobel Prize winners whom nearly all educated people can name and
| give the reason for the award, although Michelson's award
| actually was based on a wide spectrum of experiments.
|
| I found this line (particularly "nearly all educated people can
| name and give the reason for the award") pretty amusing. Prior to
| this article, I'd heard of Michaelson, knew he was part of the
| Michelson and Morley experiment, and remembered a couple of
| details of the experiment design. But I also have a bachelors
| degree in physics, and I still couldn't have confidently told you
| whether he won a Nobel prize. I'm sure the intervening 50 years
| have dulled his fame a bit, but I've got to wonder how true it
| was when written.
| fracus wrote:
| I had no idea Billiards had no pockets and no objective to sink
| balls into pockets. I had no idea a game like that existed,
| although, I certainly heard of Billiards but always thought it
| was, I now know is the game known as Snooker.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| Billiards can be played on a snooker table (depending on
| company a potted ball is a penalty, PS5 in the 'pot')
|
| A great skill improver is often financially aligned.
| quantified wrote:
| Their laboratory high school taught billiards as a phys ed class
| on the university's tables, too.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-09-14 23:01 UTC)