Believe if or not!

[L.S. Dennis]

You may want to laugh when you read the following paragraph, but then check out who wrote it!

"It is said that the earth is relatively smoother than a billiard ball. Here is what that means: A ball is permitted to vary by .005 inches out of a typical diameter of of 2.25inches, which is about 1 part in 500. The greatest depth in the ocean and the height of the tallest peak on earth are both around 30,000 feet, which calculated with a diameter of 8,000 miles amounts to about 1 part in 750, much less significant than the variance on a billiard ball".

Mike Shamos

Be careful about laughing about a guy who has 2 phd's & probably a IQ of 175, you are not going to win many arguments. This man is a genius, trust me on this please.
Off of that subject, setting standards on balls is a joke in the first place, everything they make, they sell, they really dont give a damn if it does not meet specs, and how are you going to know. I measure balls with a industrial Mic to within l00,000th of a inch, who else does this. In golf, when a ball does not meet specs, they sell it half price & put xxxxxx's on it. Did you ever see a XXXXX cue ball, every wonder why? You dont have to worry about aramith, those balls do stay in tight specs, but this cheap crap, holy cow, it is all over the map. You get on a table & say look it rolls off right, did it ever occur to you the cue ball may be out of round & it's rolling right, I see this a lot. I used to use Rashigs because of this, in what I do, the balls must be perfect. You think Shamos can come up with some weird stuff, check out jewett. Regards, Fast Larry

[L.S. Dennis]

Larry, I've talked with Bob Jewett about this crazy kind of stuff. One nigth we sat at California Billiards and talked about Pat Flemming's claim that the balls are actually fatter at the numbers. This being the case Flemming claims you can legally take balls away from your opponent by racking the balls a certain way in a 9-ball rack. Jewett didn't buy it!

[nAz]

Maybe the ball cleaning machine warps the balls after so many years.

[Fred Agnir]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Fast Larry:</font><hr> I measure balls with a industrial Mic to within l00,000th of a inch, who else does this. <hr /></blockquote>

Let's see, there's me, I'm sure Tony Matthews has, Bob Jewett, certainly Bob Byrne,... ok, any technical-minded pool player with a mic. available I'll guess.

Fred &lt;~~~ measures balls

[Paul_Mon]

Fred,
Don't forget me, I'm a great one for measuring stuff too. I remember my first interaction with Bob Jewett on RSB was about manufacturing a ring gage for measuring pool balls. You should have seen the looks I got when I brought my dial calipers to the pro shop that drilled my bowling balls. Jerry Eich didn't expect me to measure point variation and circular runout of the cue he made for me. But I just can't resist.

Last visit to Valley Forge I was using my digital caliper to measure shaft diameters and ended up trading the calipers away for a better price on a cue.

Paul Mon~~~~measures lots of stuff

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Fred Agnir:</font><hr> <blockquote><font class="small">Quote Fast Larry:</font><hr> I measure balls with a industrial Mic to within l00,000th of a inch, who else does this. <hr /></blockquote>

Let's see, there's me, I'm sure Tony Matthews has, Bob Jewett, certainly Bob Byrne,... ok, any technical-minded pool player with a mic. available I'll guess.

Fred &lt;~~~ measures balls <hr /></blockquote>

oversized balls? is that not called elephantitis?

honky (tongue in cheek)

[Ken]

The variation between peaks and valleys of the earth is an estimate of its effectiveness as a spherical piece of sandpaper. It has no relationship to variations in the diameter of the earth and is in no way analogous to the diameter of a pool ball.

In fact, the variation in diameter of the earth is approx. 1 in 298.257222, far greater than the 1 in 750 quoted by the poster and significantly greater than the 1 in 500 ascribed to the pool ball.

What we have here is just another example of junk science.
KenCT

[Wally_in_Cincy]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Fred Agnir:</font><hr>
Fred &lt;~~~ measures balls <hr /></blockquote>

Even Earl measures stuff

To: Mr. Old Hand, I see a lot of balls that are trash right out of the box, the cheap Roc stuff. I saw a table dealer bring in 20 sets of cheap German balls &amp; got half of them back, he gave them to me, I give them to kids at a show, sign the ball, they get a kick, usually they dont want my autograph, they want the Dogs, he signs with his paw print.
Wally: Dont pick on Earl, he's my buddy, guess you probaby figured that one out by now. The first thing I do when I hit a strange table is do exactly what Earl is doing, I measure the pocket, I want to know, is it 4l/2, 43/4 or 5", that has a great bearing on how hard I am going to shoot down the rail,
L.S. Dennis, you guys are dying to teach me something new, go for it here. I would have bet Wonder Dog Pat Fleming was right, I have bought into that for years. That was the first thing Gerni taught me, he said he had been to the plant in Europe &amp; was told that. I just bought into it. Many of my trick shots have the numbers touching because of this belief. If this is not so, boy do I want to know. Any body know how to email Aramith in Belgium and ask them to give up the true answer. Not a players opinion, the manufacturers statement of fact. If I was a betting man, I would go with Pat, but experience has shown me that Jewett &amp; Shamos both being total fargin genius's and I am like a fargin zoo ape talking to them, that they dont lose to many arguments. I would never bet a nickle against anything they say that they did actual testing on, at this, they are the best. Best Wishes, Fast Larry Guninger