Mathematics of creating and modeling bowling balls
Matt Prosniewski, '15
Senior Mathematics Major
Albion College
Bowling is a game that most people have tired at least once in their life. Since it is such a simple game,
many people underestimate the amount of mathematics involved in the game. In recent years bowling
ball companies have started to design balls that are meant to hook more, turn sharper and hit harder.
To do this they changed from solid plaster balls to using advanced core systems. The designs of these
cores take into account many mathematical factors including center of mass, axis of rotation, radius of
gyration and many more. In this talk I will describe how these factors are calculated with respect to
bowling balls. I will also explain how these can be used to create bowling balls that react a certain way
on the lane and how these reactions can be modeled.