Prop wrote:Pretty much. They call it a reverse plant, or squeezing the plant. Interestingly it doesn’t only apply to touching object balls - close enough and they’ll still move as one ball. But we’re talking tiny distance, probably one millimetre or less. There will be an equation that explains it, two key factors being diameter of balls and distance between them.
Hi all. Been losing sleep busy with the new puppy so I haven't even checked in much on the Island lately. About the bolded passage, yes, there is, and in fact you can buy that equation in tee shirt form so you shan't forget:
https://drdavebilliards.com/products/T-shirt/Wear it at the table so you can always refer back to it when faced with such potentially perilous table positions.
McManusFan wrote:This is the reverse plant effect isn't it? I spent some time the other year trying to get my head around this the other year - there isn't much stuff out there on the internet for this!
I'm fairly sure what's happening with the blue line is that the friction between the two reds is causing them to briefly 'move as one', causing the second red to move in the direction of the first red before shooting off.
Au contraire, mon frère. This exact topic has amazed and astounded me for over 35 years now. I learned American Pool as a lad and knew nothing of Snooker, unaware of its existence, until I was nearly 20 years old. To be clear about my position, knowledgeable and talented Snooker players are over and above knowledgeable and talented Pool players in 99% of the technical aspects of cue sports. However, in this regard, the Snooker world is a flop. Sorry, no offence intended, but so few proper Snooker players grasp this concept well, but the information is out there. Has been for decades. You are just looking in the wrong place.
Even the Break from Life guy, whom I revere as probably the most unique and entertaining of all of the Snooker instructors to be found, has seemed to deny this for a long time but he literally just put out a video this morning that I think will contain the truth. I haven't watched it yet so I won't post the link here. But I think I know what I will find in that video and I will link it here after I watch and it is what I suspect.
But now to give accolades, the first instructional book I read was Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards. Still one of my bibles for cue sports. Written originally in the 70's this gave insight into the "secret society" understanding of the concept of "throw". Throw had been known about and understood and kept secret by the old timey players for decades at that point already. Bob Byrne spilled the beans and released the concept to the unwashed masses, if they were smart enough to listen. Apparently, that knowledge has not yet crossed the Atlantic. (By the way, "throw" is a beautiful term, one of the few Pool terms I like. I generally go with the Snooker terms such as "double" or "cushion" as being more fitting, but, again sorry, "squeeze" is just an awful term and ought to be let go. Rekoons, I was very happy to see you use "throw" in the original post.)
So here is a page about it from Bob Byrne's book, may he Rest in Peace:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/By ... frontcoverBob's corroborator for his masterpiece Standard Book was another Bob, Bob Jewett in this case. Mr. Jewett is a wonderful human being. Had dinner with him a couple times at US Nationals. Bob Byrne rightly so referred to Bob Jewett as one of the planet's foremost authorities regarding the physics involved in colliding rotating spheres on a flat surface.
While these two are absolute giants on the topic, they somewhat pale in comparison to (in my view) the ulitmate "Einstein" of this particular topic, Dr. Dave Alciatore, (now retired, I believe) Professor of Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University. (EDIT: I will add....that tee shirt up there with the equation? It's not a joke. The guy has a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and has taken the time and done the research to model this information in mathematical form. Truly art meeting science.) He has spent a lifetime studying these things and disseminating the information. Most of it freely available. Sadly, few listen. I advise that you swallow up anything, ANYTHING that Dr. Dave has to say about cue sports. None of it is specific to Snooker, but it all applies all the same. Here are a few gems:
[youtube]G6ojo1xliT4?t=62[/youtube]
https://youtu.be/G6ojo1xliT4?t=61(Sorry, this video won't embed properly for some reason.
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Transfer of spin when playing a double is incredible. I use this information regularly. Last night, I hit my doubles 80%, 4 out of 5, two corner doubles and two back doubles to the middle. Dan-cat posted something about a similar concept a while back. See this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9br8xdXEs7gHere is some more about that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PGXUld5A24__________________________
The Break from Life guy's video is fantastic, as always:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1te88neqsbE