Physics and Billiards

Physics can be found anytime, anywhere. Billiards is one game where the more you know about physics the better a player you will be. Some of the main physics principles which can be found in Billards are Newton's Laws, conservation of momentum, inertia, and various laws of friction.

Newton's Laws are made up of three statements, all of which are found when it comes to billiards: the first law, an object in motion tends to stay in motion while an object at rest will stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force; the second, force is proportional to mass times the acceleration; and the third, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The Conservation of Momentum takes place in an isolated system, a system with no outside force acting upon it. Here, the total momentum will remain constant.

Inertia, the tendency an object has to follow the same path all the time and not change its motion, is found when a ball is hit.

Various forms of friction can also be found. Sliding friction, for example, is the friction on an object while it is moving. There is also static friction which is the friction that acts on an object that is stationary.

There are a few different techniques to striking the cue ball and each will give different results. When you hit the center ball, the cue ball slides for a ways, and then rolls.

A draw is achieved by hitting the cue ball below center. First, the ball rotates backward. This rotation slows as the ball slides, and then the ball rolls forward as it does on other shots. The harder you shoot, the farther the ball will travel with this backward spin. And the lower you cue the ball, the farther the ball will travel with this backward spin.

The opposite of a draw is a follow. This is achieved by hitting the cue ball above center. The cue ball then rotates forward. If the cue ball then hits another ball, it will roll forward after the collision.

A stop shot is when the cue ball is very close to the object ball and can be accomplished with center ball. The cue ball slides to the object ball and stops dead as the object ball shoots ahead because of the collision.

There are two different types of collisions, elastic and inelastic. In the game of Billiards, the most common type of collision is the elastic collision.

With an elastic collision each ball will move in different directions, the trick is to get them to move in the direction you want them to move in.