Here is (says The Modern Man) what is said to be the only impossible shot on the billiard table.
Place the red ball on the centre spot. Then place the cue ball anywhere in a dead line between the red ball and the middle of the centre pocket.
Now place the other white ball in a line with, and a ball's width from, the red ball. That is, the white ball is either just above or just below the red ball, so that a cannon is the simplest thing in the world.
If you have got the balls rightly placed, it is easy to pot the red, and it is dead easy to make a cannon.
But to pot the red and cannon is an impossibility.
[We have not a billiard table anywhere on us just for the moment, but we should doubt the impossibility of this stroke, which we should say is to be done with central aiming and gentle side.]