## The Loop Game: Pool in Elliptical Table

Mathematics enthusiast and author Allex Bellos has created an elliptical pool table and he named it “The Loop Game.” It was supposed to always make the ball go to the table pocket. This can be done by placing the pocket at one of the foci and hitting the ball placed on the other focus. This is easy to say theoretically, but of course in playing, you also have to consider Physics.

Watch the video of one of the newest interesting games that uses mathematics in real life.

To those who are interested about ellipse, he has an explanation about in his book “The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life.”

You can find the website of the game here and watch extra footage in Youtube here.

Suppose we have a function $f$. Then, we input $x$ and call the output $f(x)$. If we do things backward, suppose we have the number $y$ which is in the range of $f$. What value should we input to $f$ to get $y$? Let’s have a more specific example.
Suppose we have the function $f(x) = x^2$. And we choose the number $y = 9$ which is in the range of $f$. What number should we input in $f$ to get $9$? Well, we will have two numbers, those are $3$ and $-3$. » Read more