Solve that one (Image: Charles Thatcher/Getty)
FUD’s bar and grill in Shreveport, Louisiana, doesn’t look like the kind of place where mathematical proofs are born. The jukebox is good, the beer is cheap and a smoky haze lingers over the pool tables where mathematicians from nearby Louisiana State University unwind after a hard day at the blackboard.
Rick Mabry recalls shooting pool with colleagues one midweek afternoon in the early 1990s when inspiration struck. So he did what any mathematician would do. He reached for a napkin and jotted down his thoughts. As he left that afternoon, Mabry tacked his napkin to the wall of the bar. It didn’t linger there long – one can easily imagine one of Fud’s patrons, haunted by school algebra, ripping it down.
No matter. His inspiration eventually led to a proof on the difficulty of certain shots in pool, published in this year’s January issue of The College Mathematics Journal (p 49). Mabry admits that his results will come as no surprise to professional pool players. However, they might just give you the edge when you next hit the green felt, or want to hustle your friends with a spectacular-but-simple trick shot.
“Hustle your friends with a spectacular trick shot: a combination shot with 39 balls is unmissable”
Mabry was fascinated by what happens after your opponent accidentally sinks the white cue ball in 8-ball pool. The rules vary from country to country, but in most American bars, at least, you then get to set the cue ball anywhere behind the “head string”. This is a line, often unmarked, that runs across the width…
