How would one use math and physics for playing pool?
March 11th, 2010 | 
Author: Explain some uses of geometry, vectors trig. . . I’ve never taken a physics course but if you can explain the physics then maybe I can understand it. I’m at the level of calculus I + 2/3 currently.
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The collisions involved, between balls and between a ball and an edge of the table, are fairly “elastic”, so both energy (mass times the square of velocity) and momentum (mass times the velocity vector) for the total system is conserved. That, together with the idea that forces between colliding balls applies normal to the point of contact (the line between centers since the balls are spherical), allows one to calculate where the balls will go after a collision. Hence one can calculate exactly what direction and at what speed the cue ball should be hit to accomplish any particular purpose. One might also use calculus to calculate the margins for error, which I can seldom fit between!