Can anybody explain this video?

[maccy]

I've just seen a video of a game called "snooker". Now this game at its "professional" level supposedly involves a precisely made balls, and rigorously scrutinized level surface to play on.

Surely the balls in these conditions would behave in the way that we would expect them to, accordinding to Newtonian physics?

Wtach this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5YcqzZydjE

This so-called snooker "player" is hitting the white ball with a cue and causing that ball to hit coloured balls into the pockets around the table. In this video he gets a maximum score of 147 without missing a single shot! Surely the odds against this happening make it impossible?

Also, after the white ball hits a coloured ball, it very rarely continues in the direction it was travelling, as you would expect from common sense and physics (physics being how you would expect things to happen, from common sense). Sometimes the white ball goes off at an angle when it hits the coloured ball, sometimes it stops dead and sometimes it even goes backwards!

Don't tell me that the white ball is spinning. I can see no evidence that it is spinning.

Worse than all this, go to 6 minutes 40 seconds: the player hits the black ball towards one of the pockets, it rebounds off the corners of the pocket, goes all the way across the table and bounces back into the same pocket!

The player even has the cheek to grin as if he wasn't expecting it to happen!

If a controlled Newtonian enviroment like a snooker table can throw up oddities and flukes such as this one then I'd be forced to concede that's its possible that such things could occur elsewhere.

It must all be faked, the anomalies prove it.

I suspect that the balls are either magnetisted and controlled from under the table or they are not there at all - they are simply holograms.

My own eyes tell me that this simply can't be real.

[uk_dave]

The great snooker conspiracy.

Expect an internet video called 'loose balls' in the near future.

Over to you gravy.......

[Anti-sophist]

Of course the ball is spinning! It's rolling. Just like wheels on a car.

The "debunkers" will say that it was spinning more than just the rolling motion, but this is impossible. As everyone knows from a car, when the car spins out, it creates smoke. I SEE NO SMOKE.

Since we've established there's no additional spinning, it should be easy to analyze two particular shots that hit at the exact same way, but force the white ball to go in different directions.. COMPLETELY IMMPOSSIBLE UNDER THE LAWS OF PHYSICS.

[snagswolf]

Edit: Never mind, I get it. :)

[Rcintron]

Nothing abnormal here. Just plain old "english".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_Techniques

[maccy]

Nothing abnormal here. Just plain old "english".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_Techniques

Did you miss the ;) next to the title?

:)

[CurtC]

For those in the US who might not know the rules of snooker, first a player shoots an unnumbered red ball, for which he gets one point, then he gets to shoot one of the numbered balls, for which he gets the value of the number of that ball. The highest numbered ball is the seven. After making a numbered ball, that ball is replaced onto its designated spot on the table and the player gets to shoot at a red ball again (the red balls stay pocketed). After the last red ball is made, the player again shoots a numbered ball and it is re-placed on the table, then the player gets to shoot at the numbered balls, in numerical order, and they stay pocketed.

The maximum score you could get would be to make a red ball, then the seven, then red, seven, red, seven, red, seven, ..., red, seven, two, three, four, five, six, seven, to give a total of 147. This is an incredible feat, even considering how lucky he got at the 6:40 mark.

And snooker is more difficult than American pool tables because: The table is larger, so angles are more critical The balls are smaller, so angles are more critical the cushions are rounded into the pockets instead of being cut at a 45-degree angle, so if you don't hit right in the middle of the pocket, the ball will likely rattle off the cushions around it and bounce out. Sliding a ball down the rail into a pocket is easy on American tables, but extremely difficult on snooker tables.

[Rcintron]

Did you miss the ;) next to the title?

:)

Actually, I did :D

[snagswolf]

For those in the US who might not know the rules of snooker, first a player shoots an unnumbered red ball, for which he gets one point, then he gets to shoot one of the numbered balls, for which he gets the value of the number of that ball. The highest numbered ball is the seven. After making a numbered ball, that ball is replaced onto its designated spot on the table and the player gets to shoot at a red ball again (the red balls stay pocketed). After the last red ball is made, the player again shoots a numbered ball and it is re-placed on the table, then the player gets to shoot at the numbered balls, in numerical order, and they stay pocketed.

The maximum score you could get would be to make a red ball, then the seven, then red, seven, red, seven, red, seven, ..., red, seven, two, three, four, five, six, seven, to give a total of 147. This is an incredible feat, even considering how lucky he got at the 6:40 mark.

And snooker is more difficult than American pool tables because:

The table is larger, so angles are more critical
The balls are smaller, so angles are more critical
the cushions are rounded into the pockets instead of being cut at a 45-degree angle, so if you don't hit right in the middle of the pocket, the ball will likely rattle off the cushions around it and bounce out. Sliding a ball down the rail into a pocket is easy on American tables, but extremely difficult on snooker tables.
You forgot the most important reason:

* You need a PHD to understand the rules

Geez, I guess American pool was invented by people who wanted to drink while playing.

[maccy]

You forgot the most important reason:

* You need a PHD to understand the rules

Geez, I guess American pool was invented by people who wanted to drink while playing.

Part of the playing strategy is to work out, at a critical time in the game how many points you are ahead of your opponent and how many points there are left that you can possibly score. This gives you an idea if a risky shot is worth taking on - and especially if you should concentrate on both the pot and getting into position for the next pot, or just the pot.

Snooker players do this stuff in their heads (darts players do similar mental arithmatic to work out the finish they are going to use).

It's interesting what this might tell us about interllignce (and IQ measurement) since my gess would be that snooker players wouldn't have devloped this ablity if it didn't help them play the game.

[Verde]

The great snooker conspiracy.

Expect an internet video called 'loose balls' in the near future.

Over to you gravy.......


From the summary: John Higgins made one of his 5 fantastic 147 breaks! The break includes a fantastic fluke, the black ball jumpes out from the pocket, hits the cushin and fall then in the pocket.


One of Five! While we can agree that doing this even once violates all known laws of physics, doing it four more times definately shows that paranormal forces are at work here.

I'm convinced. This should be enough proof for anybody!!!!1!!

It's true! :)

[CurtC]

Is snooker a called-shot game? In American eight-ball and straight pool, you have to sink a ball in the pocket you're aiming at (and declare it if it's not obvious), so that if I shoot a ball, it bounces out, across the table, and back in that same pocket, I get to keep shooting, as long as it was clear which pocket I was aiming at (strictly speaking, you'd need to cover yourself with an explicit call on that).

But in nine ball, as long as any object ball drops anywhere you get to keep shooting; there are no called shots.

So I'm wondering which was snooker is played. The seven ball on his lucky shot bounced across and went back into the same pocket he was aiming at originally, but was that important? What if it had gone in the side pocket instead?

[maccy]

Is snooker a called-shot game? In American eight-ball and straight pool, you have to sink a ball in the pocket you're aiming at (and declare it if it's not obvious), so that if I shoot a ball, it bounces out, across the table, and back in that same pocket, I get to keep shooting, as long as it was clear which pocket I was aiming at (strictly speaking, you'd need to cover yourself with an explicit call on that).

But in nine ball, as long as any object ball drops anywhere you get to keep shooting; there are no called shots.

So I'm wondering which was snooker is played. The seven ball on his lucky shot bounced across and went back into the same pocket he was aiming at originally, but was that important? What if it had gone in the side pocket instead?

You don't have to specify a pocket. More common flukes are for the ball roll along the cushion to go into the opposite pocket.

The only calling you have to do is if your are on a colour (ie you've just potted a red and need to pot one of the balls that isn't red), then you have to speficy which colour you are aiming for, if it isn't obvious. If you hit a different colour, it's a foul shot.

By the way, none of the balls are numbered, so once you've potted all the reds you need to know the order to pot the remaining balls: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black.

[gorgg]

The maximum score you could get would be to make a red ball, then the seven, then red, seven, red, seven, red, seven, ..., red, seven, two, three, four, five, six, seven, to give a total of 147. This is an incredible feat, even considering how lucky he got at the 6:40 mark.

The highest possible break is actually 155 (a colour as 'free ball', black + normal 147). Breaks higher than 147 have been made, but no 155.

[maccy]

The highest possible break is actually 155 (a colour as 'free ball', black + normal 147). Breaks higher than 147 have been made, but no 155.

Higher than 147? I certainly haven't heard of it. Getting a free ball before any balls gave been potted is already pretty unusual?

Can you point to a source for higher than 147?

EDIT:

And the reason that I hadn't heard of it is that it's only been done three times, only once professionally and never on television.

At least three breaks in excess of 147 have been recorded. A 149 by Tony Drago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Drago) in West Norwood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Norwood), UK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom) in 1998 is recorded by the Guinness Book of Records (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book_of_Records) as the highest. In that match Drago was foul snookered and chose the brown as the free ball, to score one point. He then potted the brown again, for four more points, before potting 13 reds and 13 blacks, a red and a pink, a red and a blue, then all the colours. In October 2004 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2004), during qualifying for the UK Championship, Jamie Burnett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Burnett) achieved a 148 against Leo Fernandez (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leo_Fernandez&action=edit), becoming the first player to achieve a break of more than 147 in a professional match.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_snooker_break

[uk_dave]

But professor stephen jones formerly of BYU and now of no fixed abode, has postulated (dirty bugger) that the use of termites in the legs of the table could cause multiple foul shots leading to an unusually high, but perfectly legal under this murderous regime, score.

[CurtC]

By the way, none of the balls are numbered, so once you've potted all the reds you need to know the order to pot the remaining balls: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black.
In my college days, a group of us would take a break each day and head to the basement of the University Center, where we'd shoot pool. We got pretty good at that, so sometimes we'd play snooker on one of the two snooker tables they had there. That's how come I know about snooker being more challenging than American pool.

But in the US, snooker balls do have numbers on them, at least all the one's I've ever seen.

[uk_dave]

In my college days, a group of us would take a break each day and head to the basement of the University Center, where we'd shoot pool. We got pretty good at that, so sometimes we'd play snooker on one of the two snooker tables they had there. That's how come I know about snooker being more challenging than American pool.

But in the US, snooker balls do have numbers on them, at least all the one's I've ever seen.

Well some americans have trouble with... colour.

(running and hiding)