After reading Brent's recent posts about his bowling scores, I decided to go throw a series and see what I could do.
Well, 354 isn't so bad for me. I got over 100 on every game, though each game I got a lower score than the last. I had an over-the-line foul on a strike in the second game which would have given me a ton of extra points. Oh well. I use a 15 pound ball, Nina uses an 8.
Nina and I nursed our sore hands and played a game of Maximum Force after bowling. I need to get some lightguns for my arcade setup; MF is way more fun with the real arcade guns compared with the trackball at home.
354 ain't too shabby if you don't bowl often (I was on a league for 10 years so..). Most people I bowl with barely get over 100 a game. I use a 15 lbs ball myself. The heavier the ball the better, and the slower you throw it the better. Those are the two biggest misconceptions about bowling I think, that a light ball thrown hard will knock down more pins. It does just the opposite. But you're a physics guy, you probably knew that already. ;)
My next bowling outing is with my dept from work. Everytime I go bowling for work I bowl like absolute crap. I'll probably be lucky to roll a 300 series.
Hrm... I knew about the heavy ball bit, but man I crank that thing down the lane as fast as I can. No spin either. If it can't be done with a straight shot, well, then I can't do it. In general, since my heavy ball arrives at the pins at roughly 30% the speed of light, the odds are good that something will go crashing off the wall and come back and get some charity pins. Partially makes up for my lack of aim.
Some little kid next to me playing bumper-ball was granny-shooting a ball down so slow that sometimes it wouldn't make it all the way to the pins. Maybe he could teach me a thing or two.
The problem with a fast ball is that it makes the pins jump over each other because of the force. Obviously to get a strike you need pins hitting each other. This is why people who throw really fast tend to leave a pin on the lane. This is also why the bumper bowl kid usually gets a lot of pins down. Slow balls make pins fall into each other instead of flying over each other (called "pin action").
Of course the heavy ball is good because it drives through the pins. Light balls bounce off of pins since pins weigh 4 lbs a piece. An 8 lb ball will tend to bouce off the pins. You need a ball that can drive through the pocket in order to get consistant strikes (it also helps quite a bit on spares).
Thus a lot of people think, take the lighter ball cuz they can throw it harder, and thus get more pins down. And the exact opposite is true.