The history of billiards goes way back into the 15th century. It was made as an indoor version of croquet. Traditionally played by nobles and royalty, but then later progressed to being played by all walks of life down the servants and poor. However, this is not the game we are used to today. Their game was on an 11 to 12 foot long table with four holes, one in each corner, and with only four balls. Today's game is played on an eight foot table with six holes, 16 balls, and more precise cue sticks for accurate hitting. We still keep the symbols from the old times, such as the typical green covering on the table is supposed to resemble the grass that the game was originally developed from. Between the first table game in the 15th century and the version we play today, there were many versions that used different numbers of balls, pocket locations, and table sizes. The version of "nine ball" we play was developed in the 1920s and the tables were typically located in basements of bars. This is where men gathered to smoke, talk, bet, and hustle. But today billiard tables can be found in bars, clubs, colleges, and households. Then mathematicians took an interest in the game. But, they were more interested in the path of the ball and the way the ball interacts with the walls of the billiard table, rather than winning the game by hitting the balls into the pockets. After working on and studying the typical rectangular table with four distinct walls, mathematicians decided to take a look at different shapes. They looked at circular tables, ellipse tables, and triangular tables. Each table has different properties and follow similar but not the same mathematics as the rectangular table. Serge Tabachnikov is a well-known mathematician and professor at Penn State who wrote a book, "Geometry and Billiards", that is very informational and helpful when going into depth on the subject of Mathematical Billiards.