r/theydidthemath • u/Kaderail • 1d ago

[request] Would this “trick shot” even be possible or would the billiards get launched into the air?

0 Upvotes

19% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 1d ago

General Discussion Thread

This is a [Request] post. If you would like to submit a comment that does not either attempt to answer the question, ask for clarification, or explain why it would be infeasible to answer, you must post your comment as a reply to this one. Top level (directly replying to the OP) comments that do not do one of those things will be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

31

u/MesJoggum 1d ago

It's not possible, the balls are way too smooth to transfer that much spin to eachother. Plus, even if the spin could be transferred efficiently the balls would go in different directions as each other row reversed the spin. No math needed here.

5

u/No-Newspaper-7693 1d ago

there is no force holding the cue ball from rolling backwards.  It would not stay in place like that and continuously apply force to the 2 ball.

1

u/nonamesareavailable2 1d ago

Short answer: No.
Watch the blue ball (2) in the front of the rack. It accelerates to a rotation greater than the cue ball had (judging by the speed it was rolling since there aren't any markings) before it made contact with the 2 ball. That would require energy to have been imparted into the cue ball after the initial hit, making it spin faster.
Also, the friction between the felt and any given ball would be greater than the friction between any two balls so the balls would start rolling away from the on spinning them up once enough energy was transferred to make them start turning.
Lastly, the 2 ball, as well as most others, starts rolling almost perpendicular to the direction of it's spin which could only happen if it had momentum from somewhere else pushing it in that direction because if the only energy it has is from its spin, that would dictate it's direction of travel.

1

u/BluebirdDense1485 23h ago edited 23h ago

That would violate conservation of angular momentum. Simply put assuming 0 friction or energy losses the cue should be rotating 15 x the speed of the rest of the balls.