Elliptical Pool Table - Numberphile

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NUMBERPHILE

Videos by Brady Haran

[buqy]

Thank you for letting the ball fall in the hole before changing camera angles.❤

[nyalldavis]

you can also hit it in from anywhere by aiming through the focal point

[andrew_pattonpatton]

2:37 when he started talking it got me really worried we weren’t gonna see the ball go the whole way down phewwww

[jonoghue]

Special recognition goes to the editor for not ending the clip at 2:25 too early.

[TheEnglishDane]

Peter Ebdon would still take 6 minutes to decide on a shot.

[xisumavoid]

How fascinating! It looked kinda gimmicky in the thumbnail but turned out to be pretty interesting! :-)

[WillBlocher]

1:15 "if it's here (off-focus) it's never going to go in" Not true! There are 4 directions you could hit it and it would go in: directly toward or directly away from either focus.

[RuyLopezTheSicilian]

"You have to be very skillful"

Nails it right away

[ZoggFromBetelgeuse]

"If it's here, wherever I rebound, it's never gonna go in" (1:17) : Wrong.
When you hit it along the line through the hole-less focus point, in either direction, it will go in.

[carbon]

Does that mean that you could technically play from anywhere, just as long as you intersect one of the 2 foci?

[yokonthesage]

As a pool player, it’s interesting your brought up how the force of the hit changes the angle the ball banks at. I’ve noticed as you demonstrated that with a harder hit, the angle of incidence decreases and the softer the hit it increases. Do you think this is because of the compression of the sides of the table? I’ve always wondered l, and that seems the most logical explanation. Assuming there’s zero English on the ball, with a harder hit the sides get compressed more and perhaps shoot it back at a smaller angle whereas if it hits it softer, the side will compress less and therefore sway the ball off to the side more. Just a theory.

[juliansternberg]

“It’s really difficult so you have to be really skilful”
Gets it in first try

Weird flex but ok

[dougware]

Inaccurate - he says if it is not positioned on the focal point it will never go in.  This is not correct.  All that is needed is for you to aim the ball at either focal point, as this puts the path of the ball on a path for both focal points (assuming the proper pressure to rebound at the correct cushion depth, which is why too light or hard causes it to miss the hole).

[rickxhoshinji]

2:27 strangely hypnotic and extremely addicting to watch in slow motion.

[flaplaya]

I can't get over how tight the hole is :)

[dessertstorm]

the angle of reflection is also changed by spin, anyone who plays pool or snooker knows this.

[sandrant]

Every once in a while this gets in recommended, and every time I always click on it

[AlanKey]

If the pool table were filled with water, then a stone dropped in at one focus would (after a little while) produce a splash at the other focus...

How would Alex feel about flooding his creation? ;-)

[MyAce]

as someone who programs in their spare time nothing makes me more happy than turning interesting mathematical truths into something that we can physically appreciate

[lcg]

1:18 hmm, while it's true that if it's in the focus it should rebound to the pocket regardless of where you shoot, when it's not in the focus you can still rebound to the pocket, it's just that you are limited to shoot it in the direction of the focus and then it will rebound correctly