At the bottom of the page is a series of drawings that show nicely various degree of ball hits and the overhead view of the angle that goes with it...
http://cuemechanics.net/how_do_you_aim
http://cuemechanics.net/how_do_you_aim
Interesting thing about half ball hits
- Thread starter nrhoades
- Start date
Calling Randy ...................
Well, if you label the entire equator of the OB with hash marks at one-degree increments, 0-359, and define the hash closest to the CB as point 0:
A full-ball hit means the CB contacts the OB at hash 0.
An infinitesimally thin cut (i.e. a pretty much "no-ball hit") means the CB contacts the OB near hash 90.
Halfway in between these two hash marks ("full-ball hit" and "no-ball hit") is hash 45. Due to its location, halfway between full-ball and no-ball, you could think of hash 45 as a "half-ball hit" contact point, and if you actually make the CB hit the OB on that point, you get around a 45-degree cut (neglecting throw and other geometrical imperfections).
But it sure isn't what pool-players mean when they say half-ball hit, and it's pretty much irrelevant to all the good information in this thread.
-Andrew
OK, I get it. So by that logic, I guess Randy would say that a 3/4-ball "hit" produces a cut of 22 1/2 degrees and a 1/4-ball "hit" produces a cut of 67 1/2 degrees (ignoring throw).
Wouldn't hitting the '90 degree hash mark' be impossible? And to go further, the 89, 88, and probably a little further? Unless you move the cue ball to the left (or right) 2.25" and shoot on a line parallel to the initial '0 degree hashmark'. I'm sure this geometry has some bearing on the 1/2 ball hit/30 degree/45 degree semantics?
True, it would be impossible to hit 90. You're also right that hashes 88 and 89 would be inaccessible unless the CB and OB were quite far apart. In fact, if you put the CB and OB extremely close together, most of those contact points are impossible, besides the ones adjacent to 0. I was ignoring all these facts for the sake of simplicity.
-Andrew
