Humidity

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?" Benjamin Franklin



IT IS 2 PM AND THE HUMIDITY IS 50%. AT 2:15 IT STARTS RAINING. AT 3 PM THE HUMIDITY IS 90%.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN CUE BALL TO OBJECT BALL CONTACT BEHAVIOR AT 3 PM RELATIVE TO THAT AT 2 PM?

KindlyOleUncleDave said:

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?" Benjamin Franklin



IT IS 2 PM AND THE HUMIDITY IS 50%. AT 2:15 IT STARTS RAINING. AT 3 PM THE HUMIDITY IS 90%.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN CUE BALL TO OBJECT BALL CONTACT BEHAVIOR AT 3 PM RELATIVE TO THAT AT 2 PM?

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More 'throw' is imparted... imo
Doug

Our winters up here make for brutally dry interior conditions (the cold outside air holds less moisture -- when that cold air slips in it warms to very dry). But we still get muggy hot summers (well, for a week or two )

Doesn't the cloth run faster and bank longer in the dry air, and run slower and bank shorter in the moist air?

For example, this short four rail bank won't go in the winter on most tables, but goes fine starting about now...

in vegas where there is no humidity to speak of most of the time, the tables are very predictable and bank longer in dry air, when it rains in the summer and the humidity goes up the cloth does as well. It stands up so-to-speak causing more friction on all the balls, the more friction there is the more you can shorten banks because the ball grabs the cloth and dosent slide as much allowing shorter banks, it upsets the local players-top players, because its rare and they are very accostomed to dry tables-real dry. I perfer dry tables too. its amazing how much it affects things, even simple one rail banks, or draw-the rock bites the wet table and just keeps going backwards-on a dry table it wont draw as far, when you get into 2,3,4 rail shots wow the ball can be off a diamond or more than on a dry day.

Fatboy said:

it upsets the local players-top players, because its rare and they are very accostomed to dry tables-real dry. I perfer dry tables too. its amazing how much it affects things, even simple one rail banks, or draw-the rock bites the wet table and just keeps going backwards-on a dry table it wont draw as far, when you get into 2,3,4 rail shots wow the ball can be off a diamond or more than on a dry day.

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Well, they'd LOVE it here in the Deep South... The tables almost always play wet. However, a guy has to pay attention to the time of day, and the room's hours of operation. Early in the day the A/C hasn't had a chance to dry the tables yet, then by late evening they've dried, and play faster and longer. It's a nightmare if the balls are dirty and the table is wet. The ball almost banks back into your face!! You almost need outside english on every bank.

Doc

I get this exact problem in the room where I practice. They turn the A/C off at night (I do HVAC work and told them not to, BUT, He thinks it saves $$$) then the A/C gets fired up around 2pm and by 3 the tables have lengthened out by at least a diamond. I don't cry because it does make me think about whats going on, and how to adapt.

My table in Florida would get so wet I swear you could see rooster tails whizzing off the cue ball.
Gerry

Fatboy said:

in vegas where there is no humidity to speak of most of the time, the tables are very predictable and bank longer in dry air, when it rains in the summer and the humidity goes up the cloth does as well. It stands up so-to-speak causing more friction on all the balls, the more friction there is the more you can shorten banks because the ball grabs the cloth and dosent slide as much allowing shorter banks, it upsets the local players-top players, because its rare and they are very accostomed to dry tables-real dry. I perfer dry tables too. its amazing how much it affects things, even simple one rail banks, or draw-the rock bites the wet table and just keeps going backwards-on a dry table it wont draw as far, when you get into 2,3,4 rail shots wow the ball can be off a diamond or more than on a dry day.

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You must be used to real dry and looong playing tables. That short 4-rail bank I illustrated will go now around here just like i diagrammed it, by hitting the third rail just past the side pocket. It goes too long to make in the winter (but not so long that it goes by hitting before the side pocket). New cloth and extra dry conditions might make it go by hitting before the side pocket out your way???

i play half the time in LA and the other half in Vegas and its 2 different worlds, nice thing about vegas is its awalys the same, in LA it changes. I play mostly 9B so its not as important to me as it would be a 1P player, I'm a 1P rail bird when i'm older i'm going to switch games-ive had this plan for many years. One pocket is a much better game, but for now I like to play 9B and watch 1p, watching 9B isnt too much fun.

oh yeah I didnt really notice how much difference there was between wet and dry tables until i moved to vegas, it takes a table along time to dry out, when it rains here(vegas) in the sumer and everything steams up the tables play funny for a few days. I never noticed that in northern ca because when it rains there or LA the air is still wet afterwards and the tables never really dry out, in vegas its all or nothing with humidity-its an interesting topic.

I AM in the south

I AM in the south

And came from a place with negligible humidity ... northern CA. Hence the question. And note that I was interested in the contact behavior not the rails or cloth.

KindlyOleUncleDave said:

And came from a place with negligible humidity ... northern CA. Hence the question. And note that I was interested in the contact behavior not the rails or cloth.

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I don't think I noticed any different contact induced anything with humidity changes, but with EVERYTHING else changing, their aren't too many shots that aren't affected.

Gerry

KindlyOleUncleDave said:

And note that I was interested in the contact behavior not the rails or cloth.

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The balls "grab" each other on contact due to the stickiness created by the moisture and dust. When the balls are real sticky like that, I try to remember to either slightly over-cut shots, or use a little outside english.

Dave, where do you live in Dixie?

Doc

To continue this thread as things have been slow here, I went to the pool room to play yeaterday-my back was ok. I decided just for fun to play a little 9B bank pool by myself, see if i could run 4 or 5, bank pool is my second weakest game but the older I get the more I'm liking it-I never played much of it.

I hit the balls around for 15 minutes and my backache fires up bad(I wasnt hittingthem very good anyways even if my back was fine I just had a poor day), so I sit down and said "ok banks" i'll just pace my self and see what happens-no expectations- First shot is a hanger- its impossible to have an easier bank, i fire at it and its real dry here, real dry-I have been out of Vegas for 2 months so I noticed it. Anyways the ball banks super short, 6"short, it came 90 degrees off the rail, i shook my head. took my time set up another ball, since i wasnt playing well I thought perhaps I hit it bad(but in the back of my mind I didnt think I hit it that bad) 2nd shot same thing, so I picked a few other balls and shot at them missing everything by a mile, from different rails, speeds etc-I didnt attempt any 2-3 rail shots, i couildnt make a one rail bank. I was thinking banks isnt my strongest game but this was crazy, the cloth was decent, pockets were good, no ball rolled off -I wasnt even near the holes they could have been 12" pockets and wouldnt have made a ball, everything.

was thinking of this thread, when this was happening, scratching my head, i dont play banks this bad i was thinking-I never made one ball, in 10 minutes, granted i played real slow because of my back, but no balls

Then the juke box stopped, the speaker was right over my table-it wasnt loud but loud enough to not hear the lose rails, 5/6 rails on the table made that awful click/thud sound, i felt better, I knew I hadnt lost it that bad, no balls in 10 minutes.

i know this is a humidity thread but, my point is lose rails-when you cant hear them have much more effect than humidity, we all know this, but i just wanted to contribute a post today. The room I was at has 5 tables for players and about 3 bar boxes and maybe 15 other tables, It's a busy spot I drive by it all the time, it was the 2nd time since 93 I had been there it opened in 90, why cant they spend $1000? and fix the players tables-they way they are they arnt players tables-just tables in a semi private area, thankfully the music wasnt very loud, but loud enough to cover up the loose rail sound, i own alot of businesses and am not cheap when it comes to reinvesting in any of them-that has made me more sucessfull. nits will be nits and never have much i suppose,

well my post about loose rails in the humidity thread is over, i just wanted to make a post and share my day. I'm not playing banks on that box anymore, It takes a good box for good bank pool-I know it does for 1P as I have played alot of it, you can play 9B on just about anything, I never gave any thought to how important equipment is for banks, my table at home-ex girls house for now, is perfect.

gulfportdoc said:

Well, they'd LOVE it here in the Deep South... The tables almost always play wet. However, a guy has to pay attention to the time of day, and the room's hours of operation. Early in the day the A/C hasn't had a chance to dry the tables yet, then by late evening they've dried, and play faster and longer. It's a nightmare if the balls are dirty and the table is wet. The ball almost banks back into your face!! You almost need outside english on every bank.

Doc

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I lived in the deep south for five years and know exactly what you are talking about. I remember playing in the back room at Greenway Billiards and the tables were so damp that it was difficult to slide a rack full of balls up to the spot. The rack acted like a squeegee and I kept expecting to see water LOL.

I used to get a kick out of watching out of towners play on those tables when they weren't used to to the dampness. More than once I saw room operators put a big pot of shrimp on the stove to boil when a road player was in town. It made a tough table absolutely brutal to play on.

Lunchmoney

Lunchmoney said:

It made a tough table absolutely brutal to play on.

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Right you are, Lunch!! The local room owner here in Gulfport, Miss. recently put in 4 new Diamond tables, but with that shag-rug IPT cloth on them! That cloth, combined with the humidity, requires a player to be mucho strong to roll the balls on those tables. As a matter of fact, if a guy isn't capable of flopping down on the floor and doing 100 pushups, he might as well forget about trying to play on that equipment!

Doc