Does thinking about indoor games evoke memories of endless sessions of pool and snooker with your friends? If you are an avid fan of billiards or snooker, you must know about the different types of balls used for the different games. A game of carom is never played with the ball used for American style pool game.
Lets take, for example, the ball sets used for snooker games. The standard snooker balls measure 52.5 mm in diameter, however some balls also measure 52.4 mm. They have no standard weights, however, they usually weigh around 3 g. On the other hand, for a game of three-cushion, straight or balkline, you need balls that are 61.5 mm in diameter.
If you specialize in the game of Russian pyramid, you need to use a different set of billiards balls (with 68 or 72 mm diameter) from those used in Bumper pool (balls with 52.5 mm diameter). The blackball (British-style pool) uses 4.76 cm cue balls and 5.08 cm object balls, while the American-style pool uses balls with 5.715 cm in diameter.
Do you know how the balls where initially manufactured? They were fashioned out of ivory from elephant tusks. However, today phenolic resin is the most common material used for manufacturing these balls.