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Billiards is a good game (1975)

mag.uchicago.edu

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Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#31

Post by lupire »

tsimionescu wrote: post #10
orionblastar wrote: post #2

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.

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…

Why are snooker balls harder to model?

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#32

Post by lupire »

jb1991 wrote: post #5

> 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.

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.

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#33

Post by lupire »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #16

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.

Amazon's page (and URL) covers all angles. All hail SEO!

https://www.amazon.com/River-Runs-Through-Norman-Maclean/dp/...

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#34

Post by rpmisms »

jb1991 wrote: post #5

> 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.

"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.

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#35

Post by imglorp »

tsimionescu wrote: post #10
orionblastar wrote: post #2

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.

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…

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.

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#36

Post by tsimionescu »

lupire wrote: post #31
tsimionescu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why are snooker balls harder to model?

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).

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#37

Post by Towaway69 »

fredzel wrote: post #24

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.

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.

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#38

Post by namdnay »

xandrius wrote: post #17
jb1991 wrote: post #5

> 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.

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.

It’s a good thing they didn’t jump to any conclusion, and asked a question

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#39

Post by osrec »

lupire wrote: post #30
osrec wrote: post #19

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 ass…

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.

English billiards does in fact have pockets, carom billiards does not.

Re: Billiards is a good game (1975)

#40

Post by tom_ »

jb1991 wrote: post #9
saagarjha wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering he was Jewish it seems unlikely?

You have to admit, it’s a strange comment though.

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.

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