It is an undisputed feeling… swaggering away as all the tenpins topple to the floor, with the scoreboard screaming ‘STRIKE’, then sitting back down smugly as your stroke of luck looks like a stroke of genius.
But scientists have now cracked one of the great questions of physics – and sport.
Hitting a strike in one fell swoop in tenpin bowling is as easy as aiming for the 28th wooden floorboard from the left.
The bowler will also have to release the ball at an angle of 1.8 degrees to the right of dead straight… piece of cake.
Using the work of 18th-century mathematician Leonhard Euler, researchers from Loughborough University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and the University of New Mexico ran a series of simulations based on the typical bowler.
Broken down, this was a ball released at 17.9mph at a 45 degree angle from the foul line with a spin rate of 416 revolutions peer minute.
The lanes were also oiled two thirds of the length, which created the best chance of hitting between the front pins for the exact ‘pocket’ needed for a strike.
The scientists said in their paper, Using Physics Simulations to Find Targeting Strategies in Competitive Tenpin Bowling, they tested a ‘system of six differential equations derived from Euler’s equations for a rotating rigid body’.
Hitting a strike in one fell swoop is as easy as aiming for the 28th wooden floorboard from the left at an angle of 1.8 degrees to the right of dead straight
Dr Curtis Hooper from Loughborough University added that ‘the simulation model we created could become a useful tool for players, coaches, equipment companies and tournament designers’.
The paper also concluded that ‘the model can be used to help bowlers choose the balls they would bring to the competition, as well as allowing oil pattern designers to determine whether they created a profile that is challenging but also fun to play in’.
This neat trick comes at a good time as the British bowling industry has recently seen a boom in interest.
Last year, the UK’s biggest bowling venue Hollywood Bowl shared a record revenue of £230million after announcing that they were opening five new venues to meet the rising demand of one of the country’s now most popular pastimes.
In 2023, two in three Brits said they had taken part in some form of ‘competitive socialising’ – like pool, crazy golf, soft play, laser tag and amusement arcades. One third said they went bowling.
Ten Entertainment, another bowling operator, said they had also seen an increase in sales by nearly 40 per cent compared to before the pandemic.
