Can Physics help you to win Bowling and get’s a Strike ? Motion, Forces, Energy, Heat and Waves observation

Whether you have rolled a bowling ball or have never set foot in a local bowling center you should be able to use the physical concepts we have been exploring and observe with a careful scientific eye and describe the physics going on during a game.

We have talked about motion, forces, energy, heat, and waves. Whether you are aware of them or not all of these physical phenomena can be observed during a simple throw of a bowling ball down the lane.

A bit about bowling etiquette:

• Always wear bowling shoes on the lanes.
• Please do not cross the black foul line. The lane is oiled and the lane is very slippery.
• Wait for bowlers on the lanes to your right or left.
• Be certain you wait until the pinsetting machine has completed its cycle and the sweep bar is raised before rolling the ball.
• Do not stray from your lane after delivering the ball.
• Keep food and drinks in designated areas.
• Try to keep your fun and games to within your own group.
• Please clean up your area when finished and return balls to the rack.

Observations of Bowling in Physics

Motion:

First let’s look at the motional part of bowling, specifically, the ball as it travels down the lane. (We will worry about the pins later.) Throw a few balls down the lane and/or watch others toss the ball down the lane. After you have witnessed the motion of the ball, it is your job to try and answer the following questions.

1. Describe the shape(s) of the path of a ball down the lane. Is the motion straight or curved?
2. A bowling lane is 60 feet long, use a stopwatch, to determine the average speed down the lane of a tossed bowling ball.
3. Does everyone throw a ball at the same average speed?
4. What is happening to the “speed” of the ball down the lane once it is thrown? Any idea why?
5. What is happening to the “velocity” of the ball down the lane once it is thrown? Any idea why?
6. Does the ball experience “acceleration” once the ball is thrown down the lane? Why of why not?

Motion Diagrams:

1. Let’s try and draw a vector diagram of the motion of a bowling ball down the lane. Using the diagram, add your own observations of the ball at various times down the lane. (For example, you can time the ball from the moment it is thrown. Say, it takes 4 seconds for the ball to reach the pins – you could draw an approximation of where you feel the ball is on the lane at 0s, 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s.)
2. To the diagram - add an indication (arrows) of the velocity of the ball at those times.
3. To the diagram - add an indication (arrows) of the acceleration you feel the ball is experiencing down the lane.

vector diagram of the motion of a bowling ball down the lane

Forces:

Now we can begin to ask ourselves questions about why the bowling ball is moving in the ways that we have observed. Let’s try and answer these questions concerning the forces that are in action during the motion of the bowling ball and its interaction with the bowling pins.

1. What “force(s)” are acting on the ball to get it in motion down the lane? (There might be many possible answers for this.)
2. Once the ball is rolling down the lane, is there still a force(s) acting on the ball?
3. What do these forces acting on the ball cause the ball to do in terms of motion?
4. Once the ball is rolling down the lane, what is the direction of the force(s)? (Think carefully – conceptual pitfall)
5. How does the “mass” of a ball change the action of the forces?
6. Before the ball “hits” the pins, what is the speed of the pins?
7. Does the ball “hitting” the pins cause the pins to experience a change in velocity?
8. Do the pins experience a force when the ball “hits” them? How do you know?

Energy:

Energy is everywhere - we just have to identify the forms of energy and when and how it transfers between energy types.

1. Does the rolling bowling ball have “energy?” If so, what kind of energy?
2. Where did the energy the ball has moving down the lane come from? What is this type of energy?
3. Does every throw of a bowling ball have the same energy? Why or why not?
4. Do the pins have any easily observable kinetic energy before the ball hits them? Why or why not?
5. After the ball hits the pins, do the pins have any kinetic energy? How do you know?
6. If we compared the total amount energy of the bowling ball before it hits the pins to the total amount of energy of the pins and ball after it hits the pins what would we find? Upon what principle do you base your conclusion?
7. Can you identify any time during the motion of the bowling ball down the lane and/or when it hits the pins where we might say the “heat and/or temperature” of an object changed? (Hint: think friction and/or kinetic energy.)

Waves:

The periodic motion of waves is also going on during the game. In fact, it is being sensed by a way we observe the game as it happens.

1. Do you hear anything during a throw of the ball down the lane? What?
2. Do you hear anything during the collision between the ball and pins? What?
3. Explain, how you can “hear” these events? Does it have anything to do with waves?
4. Does it take “energy” to hear these “sounds?” Why or why not?
5. Where does this energy come from?

Conceptual Summary

Simply, the concepts and physical phenomena that science (physics) tries to explain are going on around us all the time. In a simple game of bowling, we can witness all types of situations that deal with motion, speed, velocity, acceleration, vectors, forces, kinetic and potential energy, conservation of energy, heat, and waves. I hope this little activity, can help inspire in you a new way to look at every day life and “see” the physics behind the observations. Science is going on all around us and we certainly use it pragmatically everyday (sometimes in a formal mathematical way) just living our lives.