Teaching Kids Billiards

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galipeau said:
I've seen a few threads on this topic so far. Someone was looking for a good video to show their kid, and I believe another member even taught a class at a pool room. I found this video and I think it would be great for a classroom setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcOAFcHkDtk

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Well, but, he has essentially nothing to say about billiards and to the extent he does say something, it is wrong. If the cue ball goes straight into the wall (we might call it a cushion) it loses half its speed and 75% of its energy. The guy in the video is talking about light reflecting off mirrors. He almost certainly has no clue about where the three-cushion shot he talks about at the start would go. He needs to watch Donald.

In serious, graduate-level mathematics there is a current field of study called "billiards". It has nothing to do with balls and cloth and tips and chalk. It is about perfect mirror-like reflections off of variously-shaped containers, including ovals and stuff. Perhaps that's where the guy was coming from.
 
I believe the title of his lecture is called "reflections on billiards". I don't think the lecture was meant to be strictly about billiards. He mentions in the first few minutes that the real world application of this information is influenced by many other factors (spin, speed, friction). I also think they brought in a class of seventh graders to listen and participate, hence the simplification of the concepts.
 
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