See also: Pool Physics FAQ page and the online Pool Physics Quiz.

General Interest Books

• Alciatore, D., The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards, Sterling Publishing, 2004.
• Daish, C., The Physics of Ball Games, pp. 77-83 and 146-161, The English Universities Press, 1972.
• Griffing, D., The Dynamics of Sports, pp. 353-375, Mohican Publishing Company, Loudonville, Ohio, 1982.
• Koehler, J., The Science of Pocket Billiards, Sportology Publications, 1989.
• Stoddard, J., The Science of Billiards, The F. A. Bassette Co., 1913.

Technical Books

• Brogliato, B., Nonsmooth Mechanics: Models, Dynamics and Control, Springer, 2016.
• Coriolis, G., Theorie mathematique des effets du jeu de billard (Mathematical Theory of the Game of Billiards) , Journal de l’Ecole polytechnique, 1835.
  • Nadler, D., “Mathematical Theory of Spin, Friction, and Collision in the Game of Billiards,” an English translation of Coriolis’ book, 2005.
• Marlow, W., The Physics of Pocket Billiards, Marlow Advanced Systems Technologies (MAST), 1995.
• Shepard, R., “Amateur Physics for the Amateur Pool Player,” 3rd edition, 1997.
• Stronge, W., “Impact Mechanics,” Cambridge University Press, 2000.

See also: bibliography including French publications

General Interest Articles

• Alciatore, D., “The Amazing World of Billiards Physics,” https://billiards.colostate.edu/physics_articles/Alciatore_SCIAM_article_posted_version.pdf, May, 2007.
• Alciatore, D., Billiards Digest Dr. Dave’s Illustrated Principles monthly article.
• Jewett, B., Billiards Digest TechTalk monthly article.
• Klein, A., “Big Shot – With the help of physics, a teenage pool player goes pro,” Science World, v.63, n. 9, February, 2007.
• Onoda, G., Billiards Digest series of articles from the late 1980s.
• Walker, J., “The Physics of the Follow, the Draw, and the Massé (in billiards and pool),” Scientific American, July, 1983.
• Wilmsen, E., “‘Dr. Dave’ teaches mechanical engineering principles through billiards,” Today @ Colorado State, April 4, 2008.

Technical Articles

• Alciatore, D., Pool and Billiards Physics Principles by Coriolis and Others, https://billiards.colostate.edu/physics/Alciatore_pool_physics_article.pdf, August, 2008.
• Alciatore, D., Technical Proofs for “The Illustrated Principles of Pool,” 2002-present.
• Barnes, G., “Study of Collisions – Part I: A Survey of the Periodical Literature,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 5-8, 1958.
• Barnes, G., “Study of Collisions – Part II: A Survey of the Periodical Literature,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 9-12, 1958.
• Bayes, J. and Scott, W., “Billiard-Ball Collision Experiment,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 197-200, 1963.
• Bouvill, M., “Position play in carom billiards as a Markov Process,” Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, Vol. 3, Issue 4, 2007.
• Cross, R., “Cue and ball deflection (or “squirt”) in billiards,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 205-212, 2008.
• Cross, R.,  Rolling motion of a ball spinning about a near-vertical axis, The Physics Teacher, 50, 25-27, 2012.
• Crown, S., “Modeling the Effects of Velocity, Spin, Frictional Coefficient, and Impact Angle on Deflection Angle in Near-elastic Collisions of Phenolic Resin Spheres,” Cornell University Library arXiv.org, 2004.
• Domenech, A. et al., “Introduction to the study of rolling friction,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 321-235, 1987.
• Domenech, A., and Casasus, E., “Frontal impact of rolling spheres,” Phys. Educ., Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 186-189, 1991.
• Domenech, A., “Non-smooth modelling of billiard- and super-billiard-ball collisions,” International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 752-763, April 2008.
• Dussault, J. et al., Computational pool: an OR optimization point of view, Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, 2010.
• Greenspan, M., et al., “Toward a Competitive Pool-Playing Robot,” IEEE Computer, pp. 46-53, January, 2008.
• Gugan, D., “Inelastic collision and the Hertz theory of impact,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 68, No. 10, pp. 920-924, October 2000.
• Han, I., “Dynamics in Carom and Three Cushion Billiards,” Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology (KSME Int’l J), Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 976-984, 2005.
• Hierrezuelo, J. and Carnero, C., “Sliding and rolling: The physics of a rolling ball,” Phys Educ., 30 (3), pp. 177-182, 1995.
• Hyeong-Chan K., “Collision of two spinning billiard balls and the role of table,” arXiv:2402.13258v1 [physics.pop-ph] 19 Jan 2024.
• Hyeong-Chan K., “Motions of a billiard ball after a cue stroke,” New Physics: Sae Mulli, 72, 208 (2022).
• Jia, Y. et al., “Trajectory of a Billiard Ball and Recovery of Its Initial Velocities,” https://faculty.sites.iastate.edu/jia/files/inline-files/billiard-analysis.pdf.
• Kim, H., “Motions of a billiard ball after a cue stroke,” Nonlinear Sciences – Chaotic Dynamics, arXiv:2104.11232 [nlin.CD], 2021.
• Kornfeind, P., et al, “Movement Variability of Professional Pool Billiards Players on Selected Tasks,” Procedia Engineering, Vol. 112, pp. 540-545, 2015.
• Landry, J. and Dussault, J., “AI Optimization of a Billiard Player,” Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 50(4):399-417, Dec. 2007.
• Leckte W. and Greenspan, M., “Pool Physics Simulation by Event Prediction I: Motion Transitions,” International Computer Gaming Association Journal, vol. 28(4):214-222, Dec. 2005.
• Leckte W. and Greenspan, M., “Pool Physics Simulation by Event Prediction II: Collisions,” International Computer Gaming Association Journal, March, 2006.
• Lewandowski, J. and Faustino, I., “Design, Fabrication, and Implementation of Jump-Cue Testing Machine” (2006). Osprey Journal of Ideas and Inquiry, Paper 63, 2006.
• Long, J. et al., “Robotic pool: An experiment in automatic potting,” Proceedings of EIII/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan, pp. 2530-2525, 2004.
• Mathavan, S., “Trajectory Solutions for a Game-Playing Robot Using Nonprehensile Manipulation Methods and Machine Vision,” PhD Dissertation, Loughborough University, August 2009.
• Mathavan, S., et al., “Application of high-speed imaging to determine the dynamics of billiards,” American Journal of Physics Vol. 77, No. 9, pp. 788-794, 2009.
• Mathavan, S., et al., “A theoretical analysis of billiard ball dynamics under cushion impacts,” Proc. IMechE Vol. 224, Part C, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 2010.
• Mathavan, S., et al., “Numerical simulations of the frictional collisions of solid balls on a rough surface,” Sports Eng, June, 2014.
• Mathavan, S., et al., “Ball Positioning in Robotic Billiards: A Nonprehensile Manipulation-Based Solution,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, May, 2015.
• McIntyre, D., “Using great circles to understand motion on a rotating sphere,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 68, No. 12, pp. 1097–1105, December 2000.
• Moore, A. D., “Mechanics of Billiards, and Analysis of Willie Hoppe’s Stroke,” College of Engineering, University of Michigan, 1942.
• Nierhoff, T., et al., “Robotic Billiards: Understanding Humans in Order to Counter Them,” IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, 2015.
• Onoda, G., “Comment on ‘Analysis of Billiard Ball Collisions in Two Dimensions’,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 476-478, May, 1989.
• Peskin, C., “Collision of Billiard Balls in 3D with Spin and Friction,” https://math.nyu.edu/~peskin/Collision_of_Billiard_Balls_in_3D_with_Spin_and_Friction.pdf, 2020.
• Petit, R., “The Art of Billiards Play.”
• Shepard, R., “Everything you Always Wanted to Know About Cue Ball Squirt, but Were Afraid to Ask,” 2001.
  • see also: summary
• Shimamura, S., et al., “Effects of Material Properties of Cue on Ball Trajectory in Billiards,” Journal of Solid Mechanics and materials Engineering, vol. 3, no. 7, 2009.
• Sorokin, A., “Investigation in Some Wave Properties of a Billiards Cue,” http://dbkcues.ru/articles-2/investigation-in-some-wave-properties-of-a-billiards-cue/?lang=en, 2011.
• Tikhonov, S., “Russian Billiards: Table Difficulty,” http://dbkcues.ru/2014/05/21/russian-billiards-table-difficulty-2/?lang=en, May, 2014.
• Wallace, R. and Schroeder, M., “Analysis of Billiard Ball Collisions in Two Dimensions,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 56, No. 9, September, pp. 815-819, 1988.
• Witters, J. and Duymelinck, D., “Rolling and sliding resistive forces on balls moving on a flat surface,” American Journal of Physics, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 80-83, January, 1986.
• Yang, J. and Chen, Y., “The design of jump shot decision-making system for a billiard robot,” IEEE Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), Singapore, June 2010.

See also: list of impact-related articles from Ray Higley

Websites

• pool-in-school teaching and learning resources
• The Art of Billiards Play (Regis Petit)
• Collisions (Rod Cross)
• The Illustrated Principle of Pool and Billiards (Dave Alciatore)
• Real World Physics Problems – The Physics of Billiards

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