What Is The Regulation Size Of A Pool Table

Divisional table on which cue sports are played

Larger tables may require multiple lamps to properly light the playing surface.

Billiard Table Manufactory, J. M. Brunswick & Bro., Proprietors, Cincinnati, Ohio 1865 ad

A billiard tabular array or billiards tabular array is a bounded tabular array on which cue sports are played. In the mod era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with textile (unremarkably of a tightly woven worsted wool called baize), and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole matter elevated higher up the floor.^[1] ^{: 115, 238} More specific terms are used for specific sports, such every bit snooker table and pool table, and different-sized billiard assurance are used on these tabular array types. An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[1] ^: 27 ^[2]

Parts and equipment [edit]

Cushions [edit]

Cushions (also sometimes called "rail cushions", "cushion prophylactic", or rarely "bumpers") are located on the inner sides of a table's wooden rails . There are several different materials and design philosophies associated with absorber rubber. The cushions are made from an elastic material such equally vulcanized condom (gum or synthetic). The purpose of the cushion safe is to cause the billiard balls to rebound off the rubber while minimizing the loss of kinetic free energy.

The contour of the track cushion, which is the cushion'due south angle in relation to the bed of the table, varies betwixt tabular array types. The standard on American pool tables is the M-66 profile, which equally divers by the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) has a base of 1+ iii⁄sixteen inches (thirty mm) and a nose height of one inch (25 mm).^[3] When installed properly the distance from the olfactory organ of the absorber to the covered slate surface is 1+ 7⁄16 inches (37 mm)^[4] while using a regulation 2+ 1⁄4 -inch (57 mm) ball set.

On a carom table, the Yard-55 profile is used (with a somewhat sharper angle than pool cushions). Thousand-55 cushions take fabric, unremarkably canvas, vulcanized into the top of the safe to adapt rebound accuracy and speed.^[iii]

Snooker tables use an L-shaped profile, such as the L77 contour.

Bed [edit]

The bed table – the cloth-covered, horizontal playing surface – is, on high-quality equipment, made of solid, shine slabs of slate, virtually often from Italy, Brazil or Red china. Small pool tables may use simply one or two pieces of slate, while carom, English billiards and tournament-size pool tables employ 3. Full-size snooker tables require five. The gap between slates is filled with a hard-drying putty, epoxy or resin, and then sanded to produce a seamless surface, earlier being covered with the cloth. When several pieces of slate are joined poorly information technology is possible for the resin to deform and crusade an uneven playing surface; it tin can also be difficult to motion in one case joined.

Tables for the dwelling house marketplace commonly employ slate beds as well, but the slate is often thinner, down to about + 1⁄2 inch (13 mm). The early table beds were made of cloth-covered wooden boards. Today, inexpensive simply non very rigid or durable materials used for the beds of low-finish tables (due east.g. for children's recreation rooms) still include wood, especially medium-density fibreboard and plywood, besides as plastics and other synthetic materials nether various trade names.

Fabric [edit]

Billiard cloth (sometimes erroneously called felt) is a specific type of cloth that covers the top of the table's "playing surface area". Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21–24-ounce billiard cloth (although some less expensive 19-ounce cloths are bachelor) which is virtually often light-green in colour (representing the grass of the original lawn games that billiards evolved from), and consists of either a woven wool or wool-nylon alloy chosen baize.

Most bar tables, which get much use, apply the slower, thicker blended felt because information technology is cheaper. This blazon of cloth is called a woollen fabric. By contrast, loftier-quality puddle cloth is commonly made of a napless weave such as worsted wool, which gives a much faster roll to the assurance. This "speed" of the textile affects the amounts of swerve and deflection of the assurance, among other aspects of game finesse. Snooker cloth traditionally has a directional nap, upon which the assurance behave differently when rolling against vs. running with the direction of the nap.

Markings [edit]

Sights , also known as diamonds (for their traditional shape), are inlaid at precise, evenly spaced positions forth the rails of some tables (not usually on snooker tables) to aid in the aiming of bank or kick shots. There are vii forth each long track (with the side pocket interfering with where the seventh one would become, on pocket billiard tables) and three forth each curt rail, with each of the 4 corners counting every bit another in the mathematical systems that the diamonds are used to calculate. These sights divide the playing surface into equal squares. Books, fifty-fifty entire series of books, have been written on geometric and algebraic systems of aiming using the diamonds.

Spots are often used to mark the head and foot spots on the textile. Other markings may be a line drawn across the head string (or across the balk line with the "D" , in British-way puddle). Some other case is the outline of the triangle rack behind the foot spot where the balls are racked in straight pool, since the outline of this area is strategically important throughout the game. In creative puddle, lines may be drawn betwixt contrary sights putting a grid on the playing surface. Other grid patterns are used in various forms of balkline billiards. A recent table marking convention, in European ix-ball, is the pause box .

Carom billiards tables [edit]

Pocketless carom billiards tables are used for such games as straight runway, balkline, one-cushion billiards, three-cushion caroms, and artistic billiards.

Dimensions [edit]

Regulation 10 × v-foot carom billiards tables have a playing surface (measured between the noses of the cushions) of 2.84 metres past 1.42 metres (9.32 × 4.65 feet) with a 5-millimetre allowance.^[5] The standard height range of the table, measured from the playing surface to the footing is betwixt 75 and 80 centimetres.

Bed [edit]

The slate bed of a carom billiard table must have a minimum thickness of 45 millimetres and in tournaments recommended heating temperatures is 33–37°C (91–99°F), which helps to proceed moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner, and more often than not makes a table play faster. A heated table is required under international carom rules and is an specially important requirement for the games of three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.^[1] ^{: 115, 238}

Heating table beds is an old do. Queen Victoria had a billiard table that was heated using zinc tubes, although the aim at that time was importantly to proceed the so-used ivory balls from warping. The beginning use of electric heating was for an 18.2 balkline tournament held in Dec 1927 between Welker Cochran and Jacob Schaefer Jr. The New York Times announced it with fanfare: "For the kickoff time in the history of world's title balkline billiards a heated table will be used..."^[ane] ^{: 115, 238} ^[6]

Pool tables [edit]

A cue brawl and the i ball shut to a WPA-style pocket. (The balls are the same size; the cue brawl looks large due to foreshortening.)

A pool table, or pocket billiards table, has six pockets – 1 at each corner of the tabular array ( corner pockets ) and one at the midpoint of each of the longer sides ( side pockets or middle pockets ).

Dimensions [edit]

A WEPF-style puddle table, showing a cue ball and red and yellow balls shut to the pocket-sized, rounded, near parallel-sided pocket.

Pool tables come in dissimilar sizes, typically referred to every bit 9-foot (two.vii m), 8.5 ft (2.6 m), viii ft (ii.iv m), or 7 ft (ii.i thou) tables. In all cases, the table is rectangular with a 2:one ratio (e.k. 9 × 4.5 ft).

There are but two sizes approved for tournament play past the International Olympic Committee–recognized sport governing body of pool, the World Pool-Billiard Clan (WPA), and its various regional and national affiliates; nether the world standardized rules of pool, these are the 9 × 4.5 ft and 8 × iv ft models.^[7] ^[3] For a 9-ft tabular array, the playing surface (the dimensions betwixt the noses of the cushions) measures 100 inches (254 cm) by 50 inches (127 cm) with a + 1⁄8 -inch (iii.2 mm) margin of fault for either dimension. For an viii-ft tabular array, the playing surface measures 92 inches (234 cm) by 46 inches (117 cm), with the same + i⁄8 inch variance immune.

In the UK as well as a number of other British Commonwealth and European countries, the typical pool table is a 7 × iii.5 ft (2.13 × ane.07 m), although 6-foot (ane.83 m) tables for the pub and home market place are likewise common. These are the sizes used by internationally standardized blackball and the apprentice World Eightball Pool Federation, too as informal pub pool.^[8] The seven-foot size is also ofttimes used in N American amateur leagues, and are common money-operated fixtures in bars and other venues. The playing surface for a 7-pes table is 76 inches (193 cm) by 38 inches (96.v cm).

Pockets [edit]

Pockets, typically rimmed at the back with leather or plastic traditionally have drop pockets, which are pocket-size receptacles below each pocket to contain the assurance. More modernistic tables may instead utilize ball return pockets, a serial of gutters inside the table, which deliver the assurance into a collection compartment on one side of the table, in a similar fashion to the brawl return on a bowling alley. On a coin-operated table, the object balls are deposited inside an inaccessible window until the table is paid once again, allowing the balls to be released into the compartment, while the cue brawl is normally separated into its own ball render, often utilizing a different sized ball. A possible result of drop pockets is that if too many balls go into the same pocket, it will fill up the receptacle and preclude whatever more balls from going in that pocket, requiring that some exist moved out of the pocket manually before shooting again.

Regardless of table size, the WPA standard (sometimes informally called "American-fashion") tabular array has broad, angular pockets that funnel notably inward, mostly 1.75 to 2.25 times as wide at the opening equally the diameter of the 2+ 1⁄four -inch (57 mm) balls, wider at the side (heart) pockets than the corners. WEPF pool (sometimes informally chosen "British-style" or "Commonwealth-style") is played with 2 to 2+ 1⁄8 -in (51–54 mm) balls, and this type of table has smaller, narrow pockets (the width is calculated every bit the ball diameter multiplied by ane.half dozen, and is consistent at all six pockets), with rounded entrances and nearly parallel sides, similar those on a snooker tabular array. One tactical consequence of this design difference is that the jaws of the WPA-type pocket are often used exactly similar a horizontal version of the backboard of a basketball goal, to rebound the brawl into the pocket; this technique does not work on blackball tables, and even shots down the cushion into a corner pocket are more hard.

Bed [edit]

For tournament contest under WPA world-standardized rules (and league play under derived rulesets), the bed of the pocket billiard tabular array must be made of slate no less than one inch (ii.54 cm) thick. The flatness of the tabular array must be divergent by no greater than 0.02 inches (0.51 mm) lengthwise and 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) across the width.^[7]

Snooker and English billiards tables [edit]

Snooker tabular array, fatigued to scale

A tabular array designed for the games snooker and English billiards is usually called a snooker tabular array or a aeroplane.^{[ citation needed ]}

Dimensions [edit]

The playing expanse of a tournament snooker table, as standardized by the Earth Professional Billiards and Snooker Clan (WPBSA) and the apprentice International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF),^[nine] ^[10] measures 11 anxiety 8.five inches by 5 ft 10 in (3569 mm past 1778 mm) with a tolerance of ± 0.5 in (13 mm),^[11] though usually referred to as 12 ft past 6 ft, the nominal outer dimensions including the rails. Smaller tables, approximately 10 ft by 5 ft down to one-half size, are also sometimes used in pubs, homes and smaller snooker halls. The elevation from the floor to the top of the cushion is between 2 ft 9.v in and ii ft 10.5 in (851 mm and 876 mm).^[11]

Pockets [edit]

A snooker table has six pockets, one at each corner and 1 at the center of each of the longest side cushions. The pockets are effectually 86 mm (3.5 in),^{[ clarification needed ]} though high-class tournaments may utilise slightly smaller pockets to increment difficulty. The corporeality of undercut (trimmed underside of the rubber absorber'due south protruding nose at the pocket opening),^[12] ^: 8 if whatever, has a strong effect on how hands a ball is accepted by the pocket (the " pocket speed "). On snooker and English billiards tables, the pocket entries are rounded, while pool tables take sharp " duke ". This affects how accurate shots demand to be to go into a pocket, and how fast they can be when not dead-on, including shots that run along and against a absorber, making snooker more than difficult to play than pool. According to the WPBSA official rule book, "the pocket openings shall conform to the templates owned and authorised by The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA)".^[11] The WPBSA and IBSF rule books' equipment sections do non actually specify the measurements and shapes of these proprietary templates^[x] ^[xi] which change from fourth dimension to time, requiring that the templates be dated.^[13] The organizations do not recognize tournament play or records (maximum breaks, etc.) if not performed on tables that conform to then-current templates.^[13] ^[14]

Cushions [edit]

The cushions (sometimes known as track, though that term properly applies to the woods sections to which the cushions are fastened) are usually made of vulcanized rubber.

Markings [edit]

The baulk surface area is marked by a baulk line drawn on the material across the width of the table at 29 inches (737 mm) from and parallel to the face of the bottom cushion .^[11] A semicircle with a radius of 11.5 inches (292 mm) centred on this line within baulk forms the "D" ^[eleven] in which the cue ball must be placed when breaking or after the cue ball has been potted or shot off the tabular array. The position of four of the colours are marked forth the long string (lengthwise centre) of the tabular array, perpendicular to the baulk line: the blackness spot , 12.75 inches (324 mm) from the top cushion ; the centre spot or blue spot , located at the midpoint between the bottom and tiptop cushions ; the pyramid spot or pink spot , located midway between the middle spot and the top cushion; and the baulk spot or brownish spot , located at the midpoint of the baulk line^[11] (and, thus of the "D"). Due to its obviousness, the chocolate-brown spot is not ever marked (neither are the unmistakable green and yellow spots ,^[11] at the left and correct intersections, respectively, of the baulk line and the "D"'s bend.^[ane] ^{: 116, 278} ^[11] The verbal placing of these markings are different on smaller tables, merely proportional to the full-size model.

Bed [edit]

The playing surface of a good quality snooker tabular array has a bed of slate^[fifteen] and is covered with baize cloth, traditionally green, though many other colours are now bachelor. The thickness of this fabric determines the table's speed (lack of friction) and responsiveness to spin , thicker cloths existence longer lasting but slower and less responsive. The nap of the textile can affect the run of the balls, especially on slower shots and shots played with sidespin applied to the cue ball . A snooker table traditionally has the nap running from the baulk to the peak end and is brushed and ironed in this direction.

Tables for other games [edit]

Other types of billiard tables are used for specific games, such as Russian pyramid which uses a '12 ft by 6 ft' table (similar to a snooker tabular array but with much smaller pockets), and Asian iv brawl which uses a pocketless 8 ft by 4 ft table. Games such as bagatelle often had more six holes, including straight through the bed in the middle of the table, a feature still found in bar billiards and bumper puddle.

Novelty and habitation tables [edit]

There are novelty billiard tables, often for puddle, that come in various shapes including zig-zag, round, and (especially for bumper pool) hexagonal. A circular table featured prominently in the 1972 film Silent Running. For the dwelling house market place, many manufacturers have produced convertible billiard tables (in the broad sense) that double equally dining tables or every bit table tennis, foosball, or air hockey, tables, with removable hard tops.^[15] Domicile pool tables, which often lack a ball-return organisation, are normally either 4 × eight ft or 3.five × 7 ft models, a medium between 3 × 6 ft. bar/pub tables and 4.5 × 9 ft tournament-size models. Depression-terminate tables tend toward the smaller range, and may have MDF or forest beds equally an alternative to slate; those with lite-weight beds may be foldable for storage, as with table tennis. Miniature tables range in size from tabletop 1 × 1.6 ft to complimentary-continuing two.v × five ft models, and use scaled-downwards cues and balls.

Russian pyramid ball at a corner pocket. The relative size of the ball and the pocket makes the game very challenging.
A bar billiards table, showing the holes but non the mushrooms that are placed in front of the holes. All players stand in front of the tabular array (no side access is permitted).
A rectangular bumper pool table
A billiard tabular array the bed of which can be flipped over for use as a regular tabular array; produced by Heinrich Seifert & Söhne around 1910.
A child plays a miniature billiard table set on a coffee tabular array and using small balls.
Soccer billiards tabular array, besides known as footpool or snookball. The balls are regular soccer assurance coloured and numbered to resemble puddle balls.

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Shamos, Mike (1999). The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards. New York: Lyons Press. ISBN1-55821-797-v.
^ Everton, Clive (1986). The History of Snooker and Billiards (rev. ver. of The Story of Billiards and Snooker [1979] ed.). Haywards Heath, England: Partridge Press. pp. 8–11. ISBNone-85225-013-5.
^ ^a ^b ^c "BCA Equipment Specifications". Billiard Congress of America. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved v May 2007 – via BestBilliard.com.
^ "Puddle Tabular array Cushion Replacement". PoolFelt.com. Archived from the original on fifteen October 2008.
^ "World Rules of Carom Billiard" (PDF). UMB.org. Marriage Mondiale de Billard. ane January 1989. Archived from the original (PDF) on one August 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
^ "To Oestrus Table for First Time in World Title Billiard Lucifer". The New York Times. 16 Dec 1927. Retrieved two Jan 2007. (Subscription required.)
^ ^a ^b "WPA Tournament Table and Equipment Specifications". World Pool-Billiard Association. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007. Retrieved 27 Dec 2008.
^ "British vs. American Pool". Liberty Games. Retrieved xxx Apr 2010.
^ "Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English language Billiards" (PDF). The Earth Professional person Billiards & Snooker Association Express. November 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Rules of the Game of Snooker". Reims, France: International Billiards and Snooker Federation. 2011. Archived from the original on 1 January 2012. Retrieved 25 Dec 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^{one thousand} ^h ⁱ Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English Billiards (PDF). Bristol, England, UK: World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association. 2011. pp. 9–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
^ Stooke, Michael P. (xiv March 2010). "Definitions of Terms used in Snooker and English language Billiards". SnookerGames.co.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. Dorset, England: cocky-published. This tertiary source reuses data from other sources without citing them in item. Stooke is a snooker instructor and author whose work appears to be presumptively reliable, based on the sources he does cite throughout his materials.
^ ^a ^b "Standard Size of the Snooker Table". Delhi, New Delhi, India: Bharat Cue Sports Society. 1995. Retrieved 25 Dec 2011.
^ "Maximum Breaks (Professional person Contest Only)". FCSnooker.co.uk. Preston, England: The Frank Callan Suite. 2009. "Unofficial 147s" section. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2011. FCS is a snooker equipment manufacturer that also runs a snooker statistics site.
^ ^a ^b "Pool Table Buyer's Guide". TheMensCave.sg. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 12 Oct 2017.