Quoted from PIN_GROOM:I continue to be amazed at the number of pinsiders (not regular folk) who insist that pinball is EVER random or luck. I've never seen a pinball vaporize and reappear elsewhere in the game. It is 100% always physics. Our inability to predict the ball's motion does not mean that it isn't governed by physics.
Yes.
I agree that physics plays a huge role in pinball. (I said that I loved the physics of pinball and that I feel I can control the ball once on a tv interview to which one announcer after the clip mentioned how surprised he was to hear the word "physics" used with pinball, and some other people scoffed at such a notion that pinball can be contolled).
I still think pinball can be contolled, I can admit I just am not skilled enough to prove it consistently. However, the pinball world has players like Keith Elwin. He and others of his caliber are just much better at mastering ball control and determining what the ball will do even when the ball is not on the flippers.
Demonstrative examples are when skillful players "pre-nudge" before the ball reaches the outlanes or begin sliding the machine when the ball is heading SDTM because they see the path the ball is taking and know how to alter it. Remember Bowen walking the ball back up the outlane on TAF!
I also think " Shatzing the inlane", drop and live catches, tap passes and loop passes are fantastic example of physics and ball control in pinball. All of the flipper moves Keith Elwin shows in his Pinball 101 video are pure physics awesomeness. (He even has the magnetism cartoon from middle school science class). Bang backs and death saves are more great physics examples.
I feel Keith Elwin may very well be the best proof of how much physics is in pinball.
But, if the general public thinks Keith is just the luckiest pinball player out there, then they probably still think the Earth is flat.
