Self-levelling pool table rocks YouTube

FOOTAGE showing the self-levelling pool table on a cruise ship in rough seas has gone viral, with 1.5 million hits within days.

Pool table Radiance of the Seas

A YOUTUBE video showing the self-levelling pool table on a cruise ship in rough seas has gone viral on the internet, attracting more than 1.5 million hits within days of being posted.

The footage of the gyroscopic pool table was filmed on the Radiance of the Seas on a voyage from New Zealand to Australia in December.

The two players appear nonchalant as the table rotates but the balls remain still.

The ship is the first to feature pool tables that are stabilised by a computer-controlled gyroscope, which adjusts with the motion of the ship to keep the table-top level with the horizon.

The Radiance of the Seas is the biggest superliner to be based in Australia this summer.

The 90,000 tonne, 12-deck ship also has a rock-climbing wall, a 9-hole mini-golf course, two pools and a helipad, as well as the pool table.

A mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation.

Although this orientation does not remain fixed, it changes in response to an external torque much less and in a different direction than it would without the large angular momentum associated with the disk's high rate of spin and moment of inertia.

Since external torque is minimized by mounting the device in gimbals, its orientation remains nearly fixed, regardless of any motion of the platform on which it is mounted.