weird question.

[mattp]

So, I play in NJ and it's often humid and the balls tend to be "sticky" with more CIT than when dry out. My question is this. Why would humidity cause friction(stickiness)? Isn't water a lubricant? And ya know that trick(prop) shot where you put spit on the ball to make it down the rail. Doesn't that spit reduce the CIT(friction)? What am I missing here? Guess that's more than one question.
I am guessing maybe it has to do with the surface tension of water but not really sure. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

 

[Neil]

So, I play in NJ and it's often humid and the balls tend to be "sticky" with more CIT than when dry out. My question is this. Why would humidity cause friction(stickiness)? Isn't water a lubricant? And ya know that trick(prop) shot where you put spit on the ball to make it down the rail. Doesn't that spit reduce the CIT(friction)? What am I missing here? Guess that's more than one question.
I am guessing maybe it has to do with the surface tension of water but not really sure. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Water can reduce or increase friction. As to the balls reaction, try this.... rub your very dry hand across something smooth. Then, dampen your hand and try it again. When damp, your hand wants to stick to the smooth surface, friction is increased.

While water can reduce friction, dampness can increase it.

 

[rrick33]

Unless it's raining in your pool room, it's unlikely that the humidity in the air would have a huge impact on the friction between the balls. It's possible that if the balls are really dirty...the high humidity could add to the stickyness of the grit but the most likely cause is that if it's humid and you handle the cue ball with a sweaty hand, then you have contributed a significand level of moisture to the one ball that comes into contact with every other ball on the table leaving you with the impression that all the balls are influenced by the humidity.