Simon has learned about a beautiful new game from Alex Bellos on Numberphile. The game is called Loop and resembles pool. The pictures below illustrate the layout on an elliptical game board/pool table. The black hole on the left side is the pool table pocket and the black ball with number 8 on it is the black ball. The white ball is the cuball. The colored balls are the only other balls used in the game. There is a lot of Geometry in this game.
Simon has explained how the pocket and the black ball are located exactly on the focal points of the ellipse, that is why if the black ball is hit (from whatever direction) it is always going to go towards the pocket. The winning strategy in the game would thus be to hit the cuball as if it comes from a focal point.
Simon writing the rules for stages 1 and 2 of the game:
The ball always bouncing at an identical angle:
Thus always hitting the second focal point if coming from the other one:
Geeks out of the box 