Heh, I lied, a final followup. This got pretty heated in the chat room, so I wanted to post this image that shows the different between what Dennis was talking about and what I was talking about. Dennis was measuring from the outside edges of the ball. I was talking about how much room you actually have on the lane.



Thanks to GP for the beautiful base graphic, complete with Storm balls.

Thanks for the great numbers. May I add, correct me if I'm wrong, the reason you attack the corner pins at an angle is to recover some of that lost 4 1/4" on the gutter side.

~ John

Actually you have an even bigger leeway to make that spare although I "may be splitting hairs". The maximum diameter of a bowling ball is 8.59 inches, not 8.50 inches.

johnw1: indeed, but haven't you ever gone by a pin and touched it, but not knocked it over? Also, the pin will deform over time, so depending on how it is sitting on the lane, you may have more or less room that way. I think serial numbers are carved 1/32" deep on the ball (could be 1/16" though, not sure), so by the time it's almost ready to retire, from resurfacing, it could be 1/16-1/8" narrower in diameter than when it started. If the ball flares enough to migrate the axis to either the fingers, thumb, or a weight hole, there would be a tiny reduction in diameter as well.

Fun

Is there any wind factor for us fast ballers?

haha, probably. A ball with some sort of non-rolling spin (axis tilt) would probably have a slight advantage on those brush-by hits as well, but I'll take the accuracy of a freely swung, rolling ball any day.

Only if you use a tornado...haaahaaachoke screeeeeeeeech CRASH O&A fans will get that one.

Funny thing about the circumference of a ball, the smaller the ball the more revs and striking ability. Ebonite took 3 identical balls except for circumference and gave them to several pro bowlers and had them bowl with each one an even number of shots and the ball with the smallest circumference had the most strikes and was easiest to control.

It would lower the RG, so that makes sense

Remember when I posted this? Was I wrong? No, I think I nailed it.

Poster: Dennis Michael
Subject: Re: Bowling and GEEKS II

I've noticed something lately, and have wondered if there is any correlation between the Sport of Bowling and people who work in the Computer Industry?

Given the fact that the American Labor Pool has taken a major shift from production line factory employees to professional office workers, I seem to find a growing percentage of the bowlers I run into coming from one business segment more than others. The Geeks; those people who work with, on and around computers.

Is there something in this correlation? What is it that attracts the networkers, data base managers, software engineers, and technical support people to this sport?

Granted, most of these jobs didn't exist when I previously bowled over 25 years ago, but, I think it is much more.

The Sport of Bowling has evolved over my absence to a technical level that many I grew up with would not understand. Heck, all we knew was to repeat the necessary bodily control required to roll a rubber ball consistently on lanes that were wooden, at the correct speed and targeted in the proper direction.

Today's ball technology of asymetric and symetric weights, the chemical make up of coverstock, materials used in ball construction, internal weight distribution and ball reaction has turned this game into a science. It is further complicated by the scientific applications of angles, rotations, control of an axis, and the reaction driven from those. It is not only geometry but physics as well.

balls used to be drilled, centered over the company label. They looked pretty. Today you have to know the PAP, the Val, distances from certain points cause differences in the performance of the ball. Things are much more complicated today and to those geeks, much more interesting.

Combining the material technological advances, with the applications of weight distribution, leverage and compounding those with the geometry of angles and axis control, then complicating all of this with the physics of thrust, inertia and deflection, make this Sport a really appealing one for the technical mind of the GEEK.

To them, it is much, much more than a Sport. It is the challenge to understand all of the interrelationships of the above, how they can be manipulated and managed.
The inquisitive mind set, curiosity, unending drive to improve and control of the GEEK fits in this sport. I cannot think of another sport where technology has advanced as much in 25 years, just on the ball used.

Oh, Louisville Slugger would like you to think they are technologically advanced too. Come on, I've been there. Computers now run the lathes. But, that piece of wood is still a piece of wood. And, a pigskin is still a pigskin.

I can't imagine what the next what the next 25 years is going to bring to this Sport with the GEEKS so intimately involved.

Heck, one of the Mods on this bowling site proves my point. His name isn't Slick, Big Ern or Lebowski, or anything bowling related. It's usrbingeek.

Just my thoughts at 2 am.

Somehow the first one didn't post. So, I did it again. But, it is now 3 am.

My work is computer based, I bowl ... I am not a geek - or am I? LOL!