Billiard balls are the round spheres used in all the different versions of billiards or pool. It might not seem like there would be much difference in the type of balls used for the game, but there actually is. Each different game for pool and billiards is played with a slightly different size and coating of ball. The friction and coating of the different balls really makes a difference in any game, and is especially important for professional games. Each billiard hall, if they take billiards seriously, will have different sets of balls for each game.
Every set of billiard balls is made in the same basic way. They are all round, and made of some variation of a plastic compound. The earliest pool balls were made from wood, with ivory being the next most common material used. This stopped, however, when people realized that they were killing all the elephants off because only 8 balls could be made from the tusks of a single elephant.
