Billiard Maths.

When I get down to play a shot I don’t really have a clue what to aim for. Obviously if you want the object ball to go right you hit it on the left side, but by how much? So I thought I’d work it out. Here’s the diagram to instantly improve your game. At the top the object ball (dark) is hit by the white ball (light) to go off at 50*. The large (light) circle shows the centre of the white ball as it hits the object ball. When the white ball approaches from a distance to get a 50* angle between the white and object balls you need to aim its centre line approximately half the radius away from the edge of the object ball. To get 30* you aim for the edge of the object ball. The bottom (dark) object ball and vertical lines show the different distances from its centre to get the angles from zero to 90*. It’s relatively easy to estimate the fractions of radius required but they’re not a simple proportion because we’re dealing with circles. This is fine when the white ball approaches from a distance but when it’s closer you have to take into account the angle between the ball centres and the line of the white ball to hit the object ball off to one side. This gets bigger the closer they are together and the lines of number show what you need to take off from the basic lines at closer distances. So for example where aiming for the edge of the object ball at distance gives 30* at 1 foot it only gives a 25* angle (30 – 5) or at 6 inches 20* (30 – 10). So to use the diagram estimate the angle required and distance, calculate where you need to aim the centre of the white ball centre as a fraction of the object ball radius required. Either that or just hit the bloody thing and hope for the best. I have yet to try this whole thing out.