Ball

Ball may refer to any of the following:

1. With a computer mouse, a ball on the bottom of the mouse is an older mouse known as an optomechanical mouse. These mice used a ball inside the mouse to control the cursor on the screen as the mouse was moved. A mouse with a ball on the top or side is called a trackball mouse. These mice allow users to move the cursor with their fingers or thumb moving a ball.

2. In computer sport games, a ball is a spherical or egg-shaped object that can be hit, kicked, thrown, or tossed.

3. In a diagram or flowchart, a ball or circle shape may represent a step or object. For example, in a network diagram, a ball is sometimes used to represent a load balancer.

4. With computer files, a ball or tarball describes files that are combined as one file. See our tarball page for further information on this term.

5. When soldering, a solder ball is a small ball of solder.

6. With typewriters, a typeball was a sphere containing letters that printed letters to paper. See our typeball page for further information.