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Author Topic: heavy vs. light ball?  (Read 1885 times)

bigbsince83

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heavy vs. light ball?
« on: February 11, 2005, 03:22:13 AM »
A couple of bowling buddies and I were discussing the fact of which bowling ball would curve more.  Would it be a heavier ball because of the weight pushing the ball down and thus causing more friction?  Or would it be the light ball which probably has more revolutions which seemingly would lead to more friction?  Of course it would have to be the same kind of ball on the same lane....

 

guzmand19

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Re: heavy vs. light ball?
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2005, 11:29:26 AM »
Assuming that the balls were thrown in the exact same spot, with the exact same amount of hand and speed, I think this would be even.  Just like which weighs more, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

If the balls were both thrown by a human, then I would say that the heavier ball would hook more, because the heavier ball should have a slower ball speed, which would allow for the ball to catch the lane more.  With a lighter ball, I would think that even with more revs the ball will be moving faster and have less time to read the lane.
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stanski

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Re: heavy vs. light ball?
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2005, 10:28:19 PM »
This all depends on the type of hook that you are talking about.

Due to the lower revolutions of a 16 pound ball, The ball will grab the lane sooner and have what is known as "heavy roll." It may not seem like the ball is hooking a lot, because the ball will not snap as hard off the dry, but it is working to hook when there is still oil.

With a 14 pound ball, it will appear that it will have more hook. The reasoning behind this is that the effect of kinetic friction will be lower when the 14 pound ball is rolling down the lane compared to a 16 pound ball. Not only is the 14 pound ball not creating as much force due to the lower weight, but it has a lower coefficient of kinetic friction because it has a higher rev rate and thus, cannot grab the lane. When it finally does reach dry, it will look as if it is snapping harder, because it did not expend energy fighting to hook in the oil as much as the 16 pound ball.

So in conclusion, the 14 pound ball will hook more when thrown with the same force, even if it is thrown faster, because of the fact that the 16 pound ball will attempt to and succeed in grabbing in the oil more than the 14 pound ball.
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stanski