Pool Room Customers That Return Tray of Pool Balls in Sequence - Why?

straightline said:
Do this:

16 02 03 13

05 11 10 08

09 07 06 12

04 14 15 01

Rows and columns all total 34.
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That is brain power with which I am NOT familiar. Just looking at it makes my hair hurt! :LOL:

Kudos dude! Not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous my mind doesn't work like that. lol
 
ACL said:
That is brain power with which I am NOT familiar. Just looking at it makes my hair hurt! :LOL:

Kudos dude! Not gonna lie, I'm a little jealous my mind doesn't work like that. lol
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Sixth grade teacher taught us the trick. you prolly came across that post already. Always thought it would make some kind of proposition bet - but that's brain power I ain't got either. :D
 
tomatoshooter said:
Neither am I. I like shooting guns and blowing stuff up. I'd prefer not to get shot at, but I didn't like that spreadsheet I worked on today either. But yeah, getting ordered around all the time...that would either break my will or I'd blow a fuse.
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The idea was to break an individual down then rebuild them into the unit the army needed, all taking orders, acting and reacting the same. This started at Valley Forge in the Revolutionary War. I think that might have been from the furrin general Ben Franklin sent from europe to help out.

Funny thing about that man. In europe he was a lowly lieutenant on the general staff of some general. For lack of a comma the letter described him as a lieutenant general instead of a lieutenant, general staff. Washington told him he would promote him to Captain General and put him to work!

It was a general at Valley Forge, I think this one, that started this pattern of training US troops, something carried forward at least a couple hundred years. The lieutenant turned the starving ragtag mob into soldiers and was a big part in winning the Revolutionary War! Commas can make quite a difference!

I had some physical issues that insured I wouldn't go play in Uncle Sam's games, something I was very grateful for. I had been hiring and firing, making many of the decisions running a business since I was twelve, giving orders too of course. I was much more inclined to give them than take them!jm,;'['
 
So a coworkers son graduated top of his high school class and got a full ride scholarship to Rice University. Graduated top of that class and went on full rides to a masters and doctorate degrees. Math / computer science was his field of expertise. As you can imagine he had his choice of many jobs and started with the Super Collider.

After a few years he took a position with FNMA . Story is one day he went to his superiors and stated there was a big problem with the figures he had been presenting them. They inquired how so? He admitted making a simple mistake that would cause the figures to be off by millions. The superiors asked about how many millions? He replied about 40 million. Superiors said oh thats nothing to worry about. Shortly there after he left them as he couldn't deal with that attitude.

He doesn't play pool but if he did....I wonder what order he would return the tray of balls in?
 
I've only had to return a tray of balls twice in my life, and for sure the balls went back in the tray the way they were picked up on the table. Have to admit though, one time after cleaning the two sets of balls I play with on my home table, I went to put away one of the ball sets and just for a moment, I had thoughts of putting them in order in the box. Have no idea why I had that thought, but quickly realized that would be a really stupid thing to do.
 
alphadog said:
The superiors asked about how many millions? He replied about 40 million. Superiors said oh thats nothing to worry about. Shortly there after he left them as he couldn't deal with that attitude.
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40 million out of how many? The type of person who goes into that line of work probably craves accuracy, and I'm glad they do.

I can't find it but I read modern engineers did a structural analysis of the Eiffel tower and were impressed by the accuracy. Maybe the 3 significant digits of accuracy provided by a slide rule is enough.
 
I was at a pool room two days ago and the attendant gave the rack of balls that were in order 1-15 with the cue ball last. I thought of this thread when I got them. I returned the balls the exact same way.
 
This is the right way to order them. Not only are they a magic square -- adding to 30 horizontally, vertically and ALONG BOTH DIAGONALS, but all the color pairs are together.

1683152673562.png

Those of you who subscribe to Billiards Digest would have seen this before.
 
A special class of tray patterns are sequential, ordered and directed counting structures.

SOD structures are:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 0

14 13 10 9
15 12 11 8
0 3 4 7
1 2 5 6

SOD structures connect its preceding and following sequential value.

How many SOD structures can exist in a 4x4?

Proposal for new billiard term:
SOD Counting structures: A special way of presenting the balls following a unique mathematical sequence.

SOD trays might be more practical.
 
OK, I’m at the pool in Bonita Springs at the pool table looking for action. Of course I return the balls in order.
I miss my Gold Crown.
IMG_3020.jpeg
 
alphadog said:
So a coworkers son graduated top of his high school class and got a full ride scholarship to Rice University. Graduated top of that class and went on full rides to a masters and doctorate degrees. Math / computer science was his field of expertise. As you can imagine he had his choice of many jobs and started with the Super Collider.

After a few years he took a position with FNMA . Story is one day he went to his superiors and stated there was a big problem with the figures he had been presenting them. They inquired how so? He admitted making a simple mistake that would cause the figures to be off by millions. The superiors asked about how many millions? He replied about 40 million. Superiors said oh thats nothing to worry about. Shortly there after he left them as he couldn't deal with that attitude.

He doesn't play pool but if he did....I wonder what order he would return the tray of balls in?
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Dude would figure a way to stack em all in one vertical column. Then quit bc his calculations couldn't account for a slight nudge.
 
Mr Machine said:
The general was

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben​

Rumor has it he put the "Aim" in "Ready. Aim. Fire!"

en.wikipedia.org

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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He was just one more of the oddballs that formed the command structure. Fat Henry Knox was another interesting guy. Owned a bookstore, read some books about artillery. That was more than Washington had for the most part so he made him second in command of artillery. Another brilliant decision by Washington. More like lack of choice but it still worked out fantastic!

As it happens I just watched The Patriot for the first time in years last night. Great movie with Mel Gibson. He can be a numbskull but was a great action actor.

Hu
 
Lol, I'm one of those that likes to put the balls in order, it may be a touch of paranoia in me. But it does show a bit of respect for the pool hall, and usually people who do such things take care of other equipment better as well. To me, I like to see that in individuals, I feel I can trust them with other things easier.
 
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