FlicPool

Flicpool is pretty open-ended. You make up the rules. Just flick the cue ball (white) at the speed and in the direction you hope makes it strike another ball (or balls), one of which (also hopefully) will land in one of the pockets.

Sink a ball and the active player (yellow background) receives 1 point.

BUTTONS

[PLAYER 1] or [PLAYER 2]

Change players any time by pressing on the [PLAYER 1] or [PLAYER 2] button at the top of the screen. The active player has the yellow background and receives the point for any ball sunk.

FIRST BOTTOM ROW

[NEW]

Starts a new game. The score is reset to zero. The cue ball can be moved to any desired location by tapping on the “pool table

[RACK]

Same as [NEW] but keeps the accumulated score. To use when all balls have been cleared but you want to game to continue.

[BACK UP]

You might decide on a game where you have to specify the pocket to sink the ball. This button will retrieve the mis-shot ball, place it on a random spot on the table and subtract 1 from the score of the player.

[READ]

Displays instructions and explanations regarding the app’s operation.

SECOND BOTTOM ROW

[Friction Slider

Sets the deceleration of the balls due to “friction.” A setting of 10, all the way left on the slider is greatest friction. All the way to the right, value of 0 simulates a frictionless surface.

[QUIT]

Exit the app or start a new game.

THE “PHYSICS

The laws of FlicPool physics are quite simple. A struck ball will continue at the speed of the ball hitting it, in the same direction. The striking ball also continues in the same direction at one tenth of its original speed. It pretty much replicates exchange of kinetic energy of two almost perfectly elastic objects. I haven’t taken off-center collisions, spin, conservation of momentum and stuff like that into account. Bounces off the sides of the table are treated as perfectly elastic collisions, speed stays the same, angle of incidence equals angle of reflection.