10 Pin Bowling - Sport of the Gods

1 Conversation

According to some bowling researchers, it appears bowling may have dated as far back as Egypt, 3200 years ago. Since there weren't too many ball return systems at that time, not to mention simply crude bronze/iron tools to carve pins, I'm betting the first bowling lane involved Pharoh launching a boulder off the top of some pyramid and watching the slaves scatter. Luckily, things are more civilized today, thanks to the inventions of:

The Bowling Ball
The Bowling Pin
The Bowling Lane
Beer

The Bowling Ball: If you want to bowl well, go for the heaviest ball you can and still have control. Remember Newton's Law of F=MA? Force is equal to mass times acceleration. The heavier the ball, the more boom or for your speed. A heavier ball also increases the coefficient of friction, giving a spinning ball more grip on the lanes. Why is spinning good? Rotational motion provides another force interacting with the pins, and force is a good thing.

The Bowling Pin: Modern bowling pins, unlike Pharoah's slaves, are evenly balanced, evenly sized, and evenly spaced. You, of course, want to hit the sweet spot just between the head pin and the 3 (righties) or 2 (lefties).

The Bowling Lane: How do ye hit the fabled sweet spot? Use the arrows, of course. Arrows are useful in most applications in life as mechanisms to tell you how to get to something far away (this, of course, does not apply to airports as our founding father, Douglas Adams, observed (RIP, oh great one)). In this case, it is easier to hit a target 15 feet away than a target 60 feet away.

Much more, of course will be written. As for now - I have other things to do.

Bookmark on your Personal Space


Conversations About This Entry

Entry

A528662

Infinite Improbability Drive

Infinite Improbability Drive

Read a random Edited Entry


Written and Edited by

Disclaimer

h2g2 is created by h2g2's users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the Not Panicking Ltd. Unlike Edited Entries, Entries have not been checked by an Editor. If you consider any Entry to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please register a complaint. For any other comments, please visit the Feedback page.

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more