So I've been having a discussion with someone else about this, and now I'm really curious. If you nudge a machine while the ball is in an open space and isn't touching anything but the playfield, will that alter the ball's trajectory? This is assuming you don't move the machine's feet at all and it returns to its original position after the nudge.
I'm under the impression that it really doesn't, at least not noticeably so. Even if the speed at which the machine returns to its original position is different from the speed of the initial nudge, I feel that both movements are fast enough to where the ball just sort of rolls over the movement and doesn't really have it's trajectory changed.
On the other hand, it's being argued that nudging even while the ball is in an open space does significantly alter the ball's trajectory, due to the fact that the speed of the nudge is different from the speed the machine returns to its original position. So for example, the idea is that you nudge to the right, and the ball isn't affected that much since the playfield moves under the ball so fast, but then as the machine returns to its original position (Moving left), the slower movement affects the ball more than the initial nudge, which results in making it go a bit more to the left than it was before. Vice versa for nudging left.
So what is everyone's thoughts here? When nudging I always think of it as moving the machine around the ball. When trying to save it from going STDM, I try to move a flipper closer to the ball, I don't think about trying to make the ball change direction and turn towards the flipper. I'm certainly not an expert though, and I could definitely be wrong, so that's why I'm asking here.