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General Science / Should the ball bounce off the wall at the same angle of impact?
« on: 02/01/2012 12:47:04 »
Hi,
This has been a long standing question about basic physics phenomenon. While playing billiard or just with any ball and you throw a ball (no top spin or anything) against a surface what angle is supposed to follow in its trajectory off the surface?
In internet i see this is a common question among game programmers games that want to do realistic physic simulations, and many analogies to light reflection are also invoked as part of the answers. However, is the collision of a body equivalent to a light beam shone against a surface? My feeling is that not necessarily. I am not interested in the similarity to light, but on the actual explanation for the mechanical bouncing and the bouncing angle.
ps. to the webmaster. My previous questions in the forum are indexed, but after clicking on them nothing comes, so they seemed archived somewhere else in the wesite? Sorry about not closing my previous topics, but I didn't know how to do it in one case and I still had one counter argument to bring.
This has been a long standing question about basic physics phenomenon. While playing billiard or just with any ball and you throw a ball (no top spin or anything) against a surface what angle is supposed to follow in its trajectory off the surface?
In internet i see this is a common question among game programmers games that want to do realistic physic simulations, and many analogies to light reflection are also invoked as part of the answers. However, is the collision of a body equivalent to a light beam shone against a surface? My feeling is that not necessarily. I am not interested in the similarity to light, but on the actual explanation for the mechanical bouncing and the bouncing angle.
ps. to the webmaster. My previous questions in the forum are indexed, but after clicking on them nothing comes, so they seemed archived somewhere else in the wesite? Sorry about not closing my previous topics, but I didn't know how to do it in one case and I still had one counter argument to bring.