UKC

Just saw this on Twitter:

"If you scaled a snooker ball up to the size of the Earth, it would have mountains three times higher than anything on the planet."

Is our sport merely the scaling of tiny imperfections on the face of the earth?

In reply to john arran:

yes. Or no. It depends on you're definition of an imperfection.

In reply to john arran:

If anyone is looking for a really pretentious new route name...

In reply to john arran:

Dunno, but it's an excuse for why I'm shit at snooker.

In reply to john arran:




Imagine our sport if you scaled up your own.... oh nevermind.

In reply to john arran:

A nice concept

In reply to john arran:
What colour snooker ball?

In reply to john arran:



I recall from my geodesy module that the closest mathematical shape to that of the earth is an oblate spheroid. This is only the second time I have had cause to recall this factoid.

In reply to spartacus:


The twitter picture showed, Red, white and black balls, so presumably their surfaces are made of sandstone, limestone and basalt

In reply to john arran:

If you scaled up Three Pebble Slab to the size of El Cap, then would it still be HVS?

In reply to john arran:


I make Everest the equivalent of about 1/50 mm on a snooker ball. 3/50 mm seems rather big to me? Some exaggeration going on?

In reply to john arran:

Where would bouldering fit in on this snooker ball?

In reply to The Lemming:


Well if Robert's figure is correct, by my reckoning that would make your average boulder problem about 1/100 of a micron high. Of course you could still make it longer by adding a sit start.

In reply to john arran:


What about for those of us viewing on green-screen monitors?

In reply to Robert Durran:

I make it closer to 1/30 mm. According to Wikipedia the acceptable tolerance on a snooker ball is +/- 0.05mm, so roughly 1 1/2 Everests. Like the claim that Brexit would leave us with £350m extra per week for the NHS, John's original claim is an outrageous lie.

In reply to john arran:

Well I get a kick out of it.

In reply to Shani:

So you are saying that the earth is better suited to bowls than snooker? That's something of a relief I suppose.

In reply to john arran:

"Even if it's only a dream, it's a pretty horrible idea," said Mella, ``"destroying a world just to make a bypass."
"``Oh, I've heard of worse," said Ford, "``I read of one planet off in the seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole. Killed ten billion people."
"``That's mad," said Mella.
"``Yes, only scored thirty points too."

- Douglas Adams

In reply to john arran:



The snooker ball doesn't have oceans. The earth would look a lot more lumpy if it wasn't for the water.

In reply to john arran:

Interestingly, Europa - the smoothest moon in the solar system - only seems to vary by about 200-300m from "sea level". It's a pretty big moon so that's about equivalent to Snowden being the tallest mountain on earth. That, by my reckoning makes it vastly smoother than a snooker ball.

In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

But the snooker ball has a +/- tolerance. The + corresponds to Everest while the - corresponds to the Mariana Trench.

In reply to John2:


That's maybe a bit misleading - the tolerance is on the diameter, not the sphericity or surface roughness. See http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/balls.html#magnified

In reply to Mark Bull:

'Bottom line: New, polished pool balls are much rounder than the Earth and somewhat smoother than the "geologically interesting" areas of the Earth. Old, worn pool balls are still much rounder than the Earth but depending on damage may be rougher than the roughest spots on the surface of the Earth'

Interesting to know that the academics at Colorado State University have so much time to pursue their interests (I wonder if that's the same Colorado State University that John Gill was a professor at). Just shows that the original assertion was even more out of line than I claimed.

In reply to John2:

I guess there's nothing stopping them making pool balls Earth-shaped. May make the game more interesting...

In reply to Michael Gordon:

I note that the OP believes what he reads on Twitter. Let's hope he's not a fan of Donald Trump.

In reply to john arran:

I thought this was going to be another thread about Boris Johnson...

In reply to Dave Perry:


Your spelling of your is a definition of imperfection...



(Nearly 14 hours and no one has pointed this out! Ukc standards of grammar pedantry are clearly not what they were....)

In reply to Clauso:


It would be bloody run out though at least there'd be some holds.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:



Capital 'E' required in the title as well, no?

In reply to Mark Bull:


So it seems like my suspicions were well founded! Despite the dislikers........