Billiards SALEM PRESS（台球萨勒姆出版社）.pdf

110 Billiards Billiards Category: Games, Sport, and Recreation. Fields of Study: Geometry; Number and Operations. Summary: Playing billiards depends on an understanding of spin, momentum, and angles. Billiards is a cue sport game that involves the use of a rectangular table, billiard balls, and a stick called a “cue.” Mathematics and physics are two important compo- nents of playing the game well. There are many differ- ent games within the cue sports that Americans typically name “billiards.” Billiard tables with pockets comprise games that are termed as “pool” or pocket billiards. The rectangular table has two long sides (twice the short side) and two short sides with six pockets—one at each cor- ner, and one midway along the longer two sides of the table. The object of the game is to hit the billiard balls into the pockets using a cue ball (the lone white ball in the set). Gaspard Coriolis, known today for the Coriolis effect, wrote a work on the mathematics and physics of billiards in 1835. He stated that the curved path followed by the cue ball after striking another ball is always para- bolic because of top or bottom spin. Further, the maxi- mum side spin on a cue ball is achieved by striking it half a radius off-center with the tip of the cue. Billiard players can use transformational geometry to The game of billiards is also a source for interest- try to hit the ball so that it will return to a pocket. ing mathematical problems, which are connected to dynamical systems, ergodic theory, geometry, physics, and optics. In mathematical billiards, the angle of inci- dence is the same as the angle of reflection for a point the game of Eight Ball, the numbered balls are placed in mass on a frictionless domain with a boundary. The a triangular rack that sets the 8-ball in the middle posi- dynamics depend on the starting position