About Ball Weight (More or less...)
Shall we talk about the physics involved in the motion of a bowling ball?
No? What if you could have a reason for dropping your
ball weight one or two pounds so you're not squeezing the lane oil out of the ball at the bottom of the swing just to hang on
to it?
Interested?...here goes...
A ball in motion has Kinetic Energy (K.E.) which produces the Potential Energy at the
other end of the lane to move the pins (hopefully all ten of them at once). If we increase K.E., we increase our 'hitting power'.
So,
the formula for Kinetic Energy is: K.E = 1/2 mass X velocity squared
Let's say you throw a 16 pound (mass) bowling ball
really hard, about 19 MPH (velocity)
So the kinetic energy would be (1/2 X 16) X (19 X 19) = 2,888
Let's lower the mass by 6%
(a 15 lb. ball)
(1/2 X 15) X (19 X 19) = 2,707 (Surprise! Our hitting power dropped!)
Lets lower the mass again to 14 lbs.
(1/2
X 14) X (19 X 19) = 2,527
Looks like we better not drop our ball weight? Well, let's look at another factor...
If you throw the
15 lb. ball 1/10th of a second faster down the lane (1.5 MPH faster)...
(1/2 X 15) X (20.5 X 20.5) = 3,152!
That's more hitting power
than the 16 lb. ball tossed 1.5 MPH slower.
If you find a 16 lb. ball easy to bowl with, keep it. If you think it's a bit
heavy, maybe it's time for a change...