Sometimes you can have too much information.  I've spent the last several weeks really digging and getting super technical in an attempt to figure out some new ways to explain certain concepts to a customer who is having a lot of trouble understanding bowling in general.  To his credit, he really wants a full understanding of what's going on, but he's so new to all of this that the advanced stuff is really throwing him for a loop, mostly because he's trying to go too fast, and hops on one train really quickly and runs with it.  In the process however, my findings have been rather disappointing.  There are so many variables to bowling, the physics of it are such that regardless of what control you think you have over the outcome of a game, lane transition, layout, etc., you're relying on an astronomical number of things to work together in your favor every time you let go of the ball. 



Ball design has nowhere to go, no different than tire technology.  They may find ways to alter and adjust things, but durability is about the only thing they can hope to improve on.  You can reshuffle the deck as much as you'd like, but the cards will never change.  You can't overcome physics. 



Jayhawk's ball surface scanner has shown and proven that ball surface changes so significantly over the course of just one league set that what you think you're doing to the surface of your ball and what grit you think you're keeping it at are uncontrollably inconsistent. 



Now what you think I might be saying here is actually opposite of the point I'm making.  There are so many variables in the numbers and the science, that you the bowler are really the only thing that makes a difference.  The amount of variables make it IMPOSSIBLE to control anything mathematically, what really matters is a bowler's intuition, vision, and ability to read ball reaction.  It's literally an every single shot adjustment, even if that means not making one.  Humans are simply not accurate enough to be able to realistically apply the required consistency to take advantage of the applied mathematics.  All the layouts, ball design, surfaces, lane surfaces, lane oils, ball motion studies, what have you, that all doesn't really amount to anything.  The person throwing the ball is literally all that matters, we might as well go back to throwing plastic balls.  All this technology just adds a bunch of extra steps and confusion to something so complicated that it's reduced to simplicity due to factors that are outside reasonable control.  Or in other words, there are so few things that we as humans can actually control or affect that it's literally impossible to take advantage of the endlessly complex mathematics that there are to work with.  There is no spoon. 

Numbers of an undrilled bowling ball do not matter. Surface and the bowling balls intended purpose means everything. Find the ball designed for the condition your facing and drill the ball accordingly. That is the simple truth.

The other factor that everyone overlooks and is in our control is spares. Most of us cannot throw the ball the way a pro does, or have access to all of the bowling ball resources a pro does. We can all work on having a spare game closer to the pros which will increase our own scores overall greatly.

No manufactures advertises that because it doesn't sell $hit for them. They can sell you on balls that should strike more for you on all conditions but it is the spares that will carry your game.

 I'm more impressed with a clean set then anything these days because of how hard it is to do.

For example next time in league write down your score as you go through the night on paper. Change all of your opens to spares and add up what your score would have been vs what you had and see how impressive spares really are.

Is it 10 pins a set? For most it is likely 50 pins or greater a set that your leaving out there.

I agree 100% kid. Almost everybody worries about striking or how frigging much they can hook the ball. Spares are the last thing they have on their mind.

In the words of my late grandfather, "make your spares, the strikes will come".

design of the ball=core numbers

There is science behind it all. 

 A designed ball’s reaction may be reduced by as much as 29 percent or increased by as much as 55 percent by the drilling technique used on that ball. That fact should emphasize the importance of choosing the correct drilling technique.

Any ball will work for any bowler.

I have read. That number is arrived based on the drilling of the ball and the location of the weight hole. They can change the core numbers by a large percent. How you dri the ball determines what the ratio will be.

If you think the core matters for a bowler then do share how.

Everything in the original post is true.  However, it was just as true 50 years ago when most of those variables were still present, and we just didn't understand them, or even know about them.  The only real answer is that bowling always was and continues to be a game that proves very little in the short run.  In the long run the cream comes to the top in terms of consistent execution and ability to adjust.  You can only control a fraction of the variables.

For those who say it is too much about luck, I agree.  However I also know that the harder I work the luckier I get