OK all you smart guys, explain this to me.

A young man I shoot pool with told me the other night that if you want the target ball to cut to the left, you hit the cue ball on the right side. He likened it to backing up a trailer with a pickup, but with a trailer hitch there is usually a ball joint - a pivot point as it were. In any case, if you turn the steering wheel to the right, wont the the pickup and the end of the trailer move towards each other?

What's awry in my thinking on this?

Catty (who has no sense of direction and can't back anything up except the dog)

If you turn the steering wheel to the right and back up with a trailer attached you will end up with said trailer in your drivers door. Also the shorter the trailer the quicker it will end up there. As to the pool table I always thought that hitting the cue ball right or left was to affect which way the cue ball would go after hitting the target ball.

Catty - you can back up your opinions right?

Gat, I can back up all my opinions - with other opinions! I don't see an opinion in my question...???

A little research last night proved my young friend right (and also that I had been doing it, without thinking about it, all along) - if you want the target ball to cut to the left, you hit the cueball on its right side, and vice versa. Where on the target ball do you aim, that's what I want to know now.

As far as determining which way the cue ball will go once it hits the target ball, hit it high if you want it to follow, in the middle if you want it to stop there and low if you want it to come back toward you. If you hit it on its left side, it will bounce off the target ball and roll to the right, and vice versa.

Catty (who finds this game fascinating)

Hi, catty. Your question about where to strike the target ball is the most elementary one there is about pool, and I can't believe you don't know the answer, at least intuitively, if you're already into the finer points of putting English on the cue ball. As far as the English part goes, I agree with what gatman says.

English aside, and assuming you want the target ball to travel in a straight line, consider an imaginary line through the center of the target ball pointed in the direction you want it to go. The cue ball should strike the target ball at the point where this line touches its surface nearest to the cue ball.

It seems to me the proper time to worry about spin on the cue ball is after you've mastered shooting a good "straight stick," and even after you've learned to control the speed of the cue ball. Of all the factors involved in influencing the path of the target ball, spin on the cue ball is probably the least important (though it is important, of course).

Thank you, Maiku, and welcome back.

I know all that, of course; as I said, I just didn't realize I knew it until gatman explained my own behavior to me. My first husband and I used to play 2-3 times a week, and after a year or so of this, we got pretty good. Used to play for $10 a game and did a little better than break even. We had 3 $100 games, one won, two lost. Then Jack entered a tournament in Phoenix, and the first night saw a fight over a quarter wherein one player put his stick right through the other guy's temple, with fatal results. Jack never played another game I don't believe after that. I am just getting back into it after 20 years of not playing, and it comes back slow, though it does come back.

Catty (who blames the stick, the table, the phases of the moon, anything, if she misses)

if we bring into consideration the law of
Conservation of Momentum

according to which, if both the masses are equal,
the velocities of the balls interchange.

Also, Sir Newton states that
to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
so,

maybe to get the ball moving in the Right direction, one needs to initiate the movement in the Left direction.......

Hope I'm making sense!
Pin~Jinx /anarchist

I asked my Physics teach today.
He said that yes, that is true.

Though, the explanation he gave was way beyond my head!

Happy Striking,
Pin~Jinx /anarchist

Thank you all. It is still difficult for me to grasp, and I seldom get a chance to practice it because I am always playing real games! However, I must be improving, because as soon as I start to win, everyone leaves! Or are they just wussies?

Catty (who takes games fairly seriously)

i don't understand...what's so confusing???

assume you are standing on ice, and the bottom of your shoes have very little grip. with isaac newton's third law, as previously mentioned, if you were to throw a ball straight forward, your body would slide back. this is the principle that rockets use to fly. by directing controlled explosion in one direction, they get movement in the other. same with the ball. if you hit it on one side, it will go to the other, with the same angle from the "center" line that both balls share (huh?)

is that what you wanted to know?