How Do You Calculate the Force in Pool Ball Collisions Including Friction?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around modeling collisions in a pool simulation, specifically focusing on calculating the force between colliding balls while considering friction. Participants explore the implications of conservation laws and the challenges of implementing these concepts in programming.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant seeks to model collisions in a pool simulation using conservation of angular and linear momentum, while also accounting for friction between the balls.
  • The participant expresses difficulty in determining the collision force acting between the balls, noting that existing resources focus on the force but not on how to calculate it.
  • Another participant inquires about how the balls are slowed down and whether spins are being applied, indicating an interest in the mechanics of motion in the simulation.
  • A later reply confirms that the motion of the balls, including both linear and angular velocities, is functioning correctly, with position changes calculated based on applied forces and transitions between sliding and rolling.
  • A suggestion is made to refer to an external resource, although it is noted that this resource does not address ball-to-ball friction specifically.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not appear to reach a consensus on how to calculate the collision force, and multiple viewpoints regarding the mechanics of the simulation and the role of friction remain present.

Contextual Notes

There are limitations in the discussion regarding the specific assumptions about the nature of the collisions and the mathematical steps needed to derive the collision force, which remain unresolved.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for individuals interested in programming simulations of physical systems, particularly those involving collision dynamics and friction in billiard games.

Bobolis
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I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment and being an avid pool fan I wanted to try my hand at programming a pool simulation. Now I have the balls moving correctly whether they are sliding or rolling but I am having a little trouble getting my head round the collisions.

Ideally I want the collisions to be modeled taking into account the friction between balls and therefore use the conservation of angular momentum as well as the conservation of linear momentum. I have tried looking up everything I can on the subject but I can't seem to work out how to model it. Everywhere seems to talk about the collision force acting between the two balls but I can't seem to work out how I get this force. I realize that in reality this force happens over a period of time but for the sake of simplicity I wanted to program the collisions to be instantaneous. So what I am asking basically is how do I find out the force acting between these two balls? As it's a programming problem I ideally want this in terms of information that I can use, such as the balls linear and angular velocity. Hope that makes sense.
 
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Before I try to give an answer to your main query, how are you slowing down the balls? Have you been able to give spins to the balls?
 
Yeah, the motion of the balls is working fine with both linear and angular velocities. It calculates the change in position from it's previous state change (i.e. when a force is applied to it or when it changes from sliding to natural roll) as time elapses.
 
Have a look at http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000516/lander_pfv.htm". You may find it helpful.
 
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Yes I have read that but unfortunately it does not deal with ball - ball friction.
 

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