Though you cannot measure the peak speed of a bowling ball without specialized speed detection equipment, you can easily calculate the average speed of the ball as it rolls toward the pins. A few simple calculations will enable you to determine how fast you roll the ball.
Step 1
Ask a friend to help you measure the amount of time it takes for the ball to reach the pins. Have your friend start a stopwatch the instant the ball crosses the foul line, and then stop the stopwatch the instant the ball hits a pin or reaches the end of the lane.
Step 2
Convert the distance of the bowling lane in feet to the distance in miles using a calculator. The standard bowling lane measures 60 feet from the foul lane to the front pin. One mile equals 5,280 feet. Divide 60 by 5,280 to determine the bowling lane’s distance in miles, which equals .011364.
Step 3
Convert the length of time in seconds that it took your bowling ball to travel toward the pins to the length of time in hours. Divide the number by 3,600, the number of seconds in an hour, to determine the length of time in hours that it took your ball to reach the pins. For example, if it took your bowling ball eight seconds to travel to the pins, you find that the amount of time it traveled in hours equals .00222.
Step 4
Divide the distance the ball traveled by the time it took to travel that distance to determine the ball’s average speed. To determine the speed in miles per hour, divide .011364 by the length of time in hours that the ball traveled. For example, if your ball travelled to the pins in .00222 hours, your ball traveled at an average speed of 5.11 miles per hour.
Things You'll Need
- Stopwatch
- Calculator
Member Comments