9-Ball
Topic: White Ball...!! Cenntenial vs Aramith

Hey,

This is my first post so please be gentle. I am currently using the Aramith Super pro balls and Pro cup cue ball but from time to time my mate uses his Brunswick Centennial balls. I dont find there to be much if at all any difference with the balls themselves but i tend to find the white ball to the Centennials set to act differently. So for about 3 months now me and my mate have our differences over the white ball. If at all possible could someone please clear it up for me. I say Aramith White is different to that of Centennial White!?

Please help.........hope im right, other wise ill be forking out for a few beers.

dark_horse

Hey DH, Welcome to Pro9

OK, I thought there wasn't a difference at first, untill I owned a set of Centennials last year, (I sold them again as I felt that the club I play at, would get more use from them, than I would) and I did in fact find a difference in both sets overall

Although Aramith makes both ball sets, the Centennials do play slightly heavier, than super aramith pros, but barely noticable.

I found that when shooting with centennials, the snowball did take as every bit as much spin as the measles ball, but there wasn't quite as much roll with Centennials, as there was with Super Aramiths, which is better, especially if you're playing Straight Pool, etc

Now in saying this, there are many other players out there that will have different views on this this and would say that there isn't any difference, but I personally have found a difference, but again, this is just my views on it

I hope that this is of some help at least

Willie

I can shed some tecnichal light upon this. The centennial balls are slightly heavier than the super aramith. It is not much, only 2 or 3 g. It is enough to make the balls behave differently. Both sets are offcourse within the legal weight range.

I have both sets in my poolhall and when I switch from one to the other I can feel the difference. The centennial balls have sligthly less reaction on whatever spinn I use, and the balls seem to push through more. The super aramith have a tendency to stick together more and the white ball react better (for me).

So, for those who cant feel the difference, lucky you! For the rest of us it is just a matter of knowing what differences there are. This will probably change form person to person.

Have fun finding differences


-----------------
Ine
www.inehelvik.com

A couple of technical points from a physics point of view:
The determining factors of how a white feels and plays are four-fold:

1. The white to object ball weight ratio. Ideally you want a 1:1 relationship in weight between white and object ball. This means you get an exact tangent as the start trajectory of the white after contact (or a perfect stop on a straight shot). The spin then takes hold thus forcing the white to bend its path either forward or backwards depending on whether you apply follow or draw. (Note that in English pool the white is much lighter than the object balls, making for a completely different set of shot possibilities, since the white never leaves the contact point at a tangent, but always along a path which is slightly backwards of the tangent line. )

2. The actual weight of the balls. Since the speed at which the white changes it's direction from the tangent line onto it's final path is dependent on its acceleration created by the friction between the spinning ball and the cloth, the heavier a ball the larger its inertia and larger its resistance to acceleration. Heavier balls will tend to "hang" a lot longer before the spin starts to take thus resulting in a wider arc. Note also that the faster you hit the shot the more the white will travel along the tangent line before the spin takes thus increasing the width of the arc further.

3. The surface of the white ball. If you have a dirty greasy white which is normal for most clubs, there will be much less slide on the cloth and spin will take very quickly and rub off the white during it's path to the object ball, thus making it harder to get good reaction from the white. If you do succeed to still have spin on a dirty white when it contacts the object ball, the reaction of the white after contact will again be faster, thus resulting in a much smaller arc between the tangent and the final path of the white, this can make certain shots possible which would be otherwise impossible with clean or polished balls. To make life much easier, keep your balls clean and polished, you won't need to hit shots as hard and the game becomes much more graceful.

4. The cloth quality and state. New cloth will tend to have much more slide than old cloth, thus having a similar effect to having clean/polished balls. The end result of new or old cloth is the same as having polished or dirty balls, ultimately it just affects the friction between the ball and the cloth. The more friction the harder it is to get the white to keep spin and the faster it will react to spin after contact.

Some other points to note, if you have polished balls or you have a new cloth, the slide that you get between the cue ball and the cloth results in different behavior of the balls off the rails. Normally a ball hitting a rail will have roll spin (slight follow). If the cloth-ball interface is slidy then the spin will stay on the ball after contact with the rail and thus act to widen the angle off the rail, sometimes at speed you can lose all the bounce off the rail because of this effect. Something to watch out for when playing in professional tournaments with new balls and cloths.

One smaller factor I did not mention is also the friction between balls, obviously if you get some grip between the balls on contact, you will likely get a kick and lose some of the spin from the white, you will also quite likely get a slight deviation in the path of the object ball, another good reason to keep the balls clean and polished.

So with this knowledge in hand, off you go and start running racks!

I hope this helps.

Hey,

I thank everyone for all there help. Doesnt look like ill be forking out for any beers! I have also been told that the Centennial balls from a couple of years ago are different but if you were to buy them now then they would be the exact same!

Thanks again,

dark_horse

Jonni isn't a scientist for nothing

I don't think that would be the case DH, but it is possible, the reason being is, if Brunswick has certain criteria for their ball sets, e.g Centennials, (Regular or TV Sets) or the Heritage sets, then I would imagine, that aramith would be making them, to the spec that Brunswick has required for them to be made, which is probably to the same weight, etc that they may have been 30 or more years ago, only with the more advanced grades of pheonolic resin, that is used , but don't quote me on that because it's just a possibility, and I'm not sure if the new sets are lighter, than they were a few years ago or not

Willie