Let’s play some pool on board our cruise ship! Don’t be an idiot, the balls will fly about all over the place…

Or maybe they won’t. Not when some clever bods have engineered a solution using gyroscopes that keep the pool table completely horizontal at all times, no matter how rough the sea is.

This is amazing. I understand how it’s done, and that it’s not actually all that difficult to achieve, but still. To see it in action, with the balls staying perfectly still despite the swell, is astonishing.

The problem for me is I wouldn’t want to play pool in rough seas anyway. If I ever find myself on a cruise and the ship is pitching this much I’ll be in bed with a bucket beside me waiting to vomit. No gyroscope will fix that.