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Check these collisions out

By Matin Durrani

With all those rumours flying around of possible sightings of the Higgs boson in among the proton–proton collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, you might find this video of a very different type of collision interesting.

It involves not protons but pool balls, as performed by Philadelphia-based “professional pool trick-shot artist” Steve Markle.

“The trick shots I do are an excellent showing of defining the laws of physics,” Markle claims.

And if you think pool balls behave in a pretty predictable way according to the rules of classical physics, well yes they do, but it’s still surprising to see what some good old-fashioned spin can do. Take a look, for example, at 3.46 min, when Markle manages to bend a pool ball in a curve through an entire 90° angle.

And if you want to see Markle in action for real, he’s due to be performing at the Artistic Pool World Championship (yes, there is such a thing) in Oaks, Oaklahoma next March.

As for whether the Higgs is going to show up at CERN, you’ve now got just a week to wait. In the meantime, these pool-ball collisions are sure to keep you amused.

Posted by Matin Durrani on Dec 6, 2011 10:06 AM | Permalink