StarTalk Radio - Equations in Motion – Bowling with Dr. Dave Alciatore

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

How do you bowl a perfect 300? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly discover Euler’s Equations of Motion and the cheat codes to bowling with physicist Dr. Dave Alciatore. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/equations-in-motion-bowling-with-dave-alciatore/Thanks to our Patrons Shivam Gagad, Arnav, Madalina, Amy A., Ryan Fawley, Ashley Grace, Junior Verhelst, Dominique Monroe, Mai, and Kay Trajkovski for supporting us this week.Photo Credit: Nan Palmero from San Antonio, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk Sports Edition. Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist and sports enthusiast. But I'm not enough to hold this show. I need my co-hosts who are Gary, Gary, former professional footballer in the UK. Hi, Neil. Welcome. Welcome back to the show. Yeah. And how long have you been in the United States? Depends who you ask. I think it ranges from too long. The real question is, how long have you been here legally?

Oh. Legal? I have always been here legally. So that's the good news. So that's no need to chase me down the street. Yeah, the ice patrol. You're the Sting song. Sting has a song.

I'm an alien. I'm a legal alien. I'm an Englishman in New York. Yeah, gentleman in New York. That's you, buddy. Yeah. And that other voice popped gentleman in New York. Yeah, that's you, buddy. Yeah. And that other voice popped up, Chuck Nice. Always good to have you, man. Always good to be here. I just want to say absolutely nothing. I was delighted to host your family for the weekend. And when we did, one early morning, you asked me for a jump rope.

You went over to the side and you worked out with a jump rope. And I was so impressed by that, only to then realize you never really did any sports your whole life. Yes. However, double dutch is a sport. Is that in the Olympics? We're going to see that in Paris. I think double dutch requires three people. You can't double dutch with yourself.

That's how good I am. So, Gary, what do you have in store for us today? Okay, this would be interesting, if not fascinating. Ten-pin bowling. They say, right? But bowling, to get a perfect game, means you score over 300. And if you have... That's just regular bowling.

You said ten-pin. That's just regular bowling, right? That's ten-pin bowling, as opposed to crown green bowling, which is done on grass and all the other sort of varieties. Long bowling. There you go. So, if you have an average over 200, it's considered as

an accurate indicator of a misspent youth right it's it's also it's also an indicator that this person may well understand more physics than you think imagine right they're on the lane with the ball in the hand you're discussing oilers equations of motion whilst chewing the fat about radius of gyration, or whilst wearing some dang ugly shoes that don't fit too good. And it's actually said, Chuck, and you'll love this, if you learn to read the oil patterns in the lane, you could find yourself with the cheat codes for a perfect game. And we must get into how that can work out for us if we want to hustle down in the pool lanes.

What do you think? I love it. Yeah. I mean, I haven't bowled in many, many years, primarily because it's become a place where yuppies go to drink. It used to be, you know, like, I used to be in a league Saturday morning.

You went out, you bowled, it was great. Now you can't get a lane because it's a bunch of yuppies sitting around day drinking but is yuppies still even a word use now in the language oh they're still they're still around i know they still exist but is it a word right no you're right you're right they're not no no neil you're right they're not yuppies anymore they're hipsters oh okay all right yeah i'm sorry i. Yeah, they're hipsters. Okay, so Gary, who do you have who possibly has this kind of expertise? Well, surprisingly enough,

he's a guest who's been on before. We knew him as... What? Yes, Dr. Dave, the pool hustler. He's going to return today as Dr. Dave, Lord of the Lanes. Because he has some serious chops. He's bowled a perfect game.

He still has an average over 200. And you know what? Even I could work out he was the guy to talk to. Okay. Dave, welcome back to StarTalk. Thanks, Neil. It's great to be back. Oh, my gosh.

I love calling him Dr. Dave. I love that. It's affectionate. It's more affectionate than just Dave. You know, Dr. Dave. So, that. It's affectionate. It's more affectionate than just Dave. You know, Dr. Dave. So, recently retired professor emeritus. You don't look that old. At Colorado State University.

Got your PhD in mechanical engineering at UT Austin. And I met my wife at UT Austin, by the way. Yeah, I knew that. The woman who would become my wife. And you've got your own YouTube channel and facebook page dedicated to pool we knew that but also to billiards so so you're the man you the man and so let me ask you in your misspent childhood how did bowling become part of this as well my my early life dream was to be the dr dave of bowling instead of the dr dave of fool. All right. Cause I, I grew up, I basically grew up in a bowling alley. My, my mom worked at a bowling

alley and luckily that bowling alley also had a pool hall in it. So it was just, it was just bliss, heavenly bliss for me, even as a child. So which are you better at? Um, I'm probably, uh, people probably can send me a little bit better in the billiards, but I'm a strong bowler as well. Wow. What constitutes a strong bowler? I mean, it would have to come down to the numbers of your average. Yeah, of course. So what is the average that creates a strong bowler? Anything over 200, like Gary

mentioned, is considered strong, but I've averaged close to 220. I'm averaging about 220 right now, partly because I got a brand new bowling ball, which we're going to talk about later. That's helped me boost my average. Right on, right on. Oh man, that means you got the fingers drilled for your sake. That's a good feeling. You take the ball and it's just a big ball. It's a sphere and you got to go in and they drill the holes just for you. And you've got to go in and they drill the holes just for you. So, Dave, in my engineering physics classes, I remember learning all about sort of Euler angles and sort of the geometry of a rotating coordinate system.

And my notes here tell me that Euler, Euler is a famous British mathematician from a century gone by, that you somehow invoke Euler equations to bowl a 300. You've got to get me on that same page. Well, honestly, I don't use the math when I bowl, but the math does affect the physics on the lane. The Euler's equations, Euler did many things, but one thing he contributed to dynamics is the Euler's equations of motion that describe gyroscopic effects. And these new bowling balls take advantage of these gyroscopic effects. Wow.

And I'm going to be very honest because I don't care when I look ignorant because it happens all of the time. I thought the Euler lanes were the greasy spots on the floor. I actually thought maybe there are slick spots on the floor. I actually thought maybe there were slick spots on the lane itself. Okay, this is spelled E-U-L-E-R, Euler. Maybe Euler was the first guy that oiled the lane, so they call him the Euler.

Right, exactly. So it's Euler, E-U-L-E-R. Okay. So here's an interesting observation, and then I'll pass over to, because Gary is going to drill you for the whole hour we got here. So what I remembered most about the Euler equations

in my sort of engineering physics was normally when we think of something rotating, we think of only one axis. And so Earth is rotating, or a top is rotating that is spinning. But if you have rotation in more than one axis simultaneously, then interesting things happen, right? So here's the ball trying to roll down the lane.

And so that's an axis of rotation. It's rolling. But then you put a little spin on it, on top of the rolling that's happening. And so the ball doesn't go in a straight line. It curves. So are you telling me you thought all this out? And really? Really?

And it's not just practice? Well, to play the game well, it's all about practice. But good bowlers take advantage of the oil patterns, which we can talk about. And the ball manufacturers take advantage of these gyroscopic effects. So if you had a homogeneous ball, a solid sphere, it has holes in it, but let's forget that for now. And you spin it and you throw it down the lane, it's going to spin on the same circumference the whole way down the lane. And this is actually directly from billiards. When we looked at the masse shot, a masse shot in billiards is the same as a curve ball in bowling. All right. Now,

if the ball is a sphere, a solid sphere, when it's trying to curve, it's spinning. And Coriolis figured out that the direction of the friction does not change during the curve. Same thing on a pool table. So what that suggests is that a stripe of oil is going to build up on that ball along one circumference. You get a circle of oil building up on the ball as it's traveling down the lane. Now that's bad because the oil is slick. And when the ball hits...

So he is literally talking about oil. There is oil on the lane. It's actually a petroleum product. It's not crude oil. It's actually mineral oil based, but it's a very clean looking oil, but it's slick. Okay, so Chuck, you were even wrong in your

ignorance. That's pretty bad. Yeah, well, you know. What can I say? This is where I'm a Viking. This is where I'm a Viking. Go ahead. You've got to be good at something. Even if it's good at being wrong. All right, Dave.

So, I mean, we've got multiple axes of rotation, and that's all happening. But to drive this, apart from the bowler themselves, you've got a weight block inside. Now, they come in, A, different shapes, and they're not all asymmetrical. They're offset as well, aren't they? Yes. So how is that then impacting on these Euler's equations of motion and how the ball does its thing? That's the critical piece here. So again, if you have that solid ball that doesn't have this

weight block in it, it builds up this stripe of oil. Now, the oil is not consistent over the whole length of the lane. They put most of the oil in the first two-thirds of the lane. The last third is mostly dry. It has a little bit of oil. That's where most of the curve occurs in the last third of the lane. But if the ball is picking up oil the whole way down the lane, it's going to slide more during that curve section. All right, so these weight blocks, it's asymmetric. As Neil's pointed out, if you have a ball, you're spinning at about one axis. It's moving down the lane. Friction is creating a torque or moment about another axis. That causes this weird wobbling effect. The ball actually does this weird wobble thing. You can see me on video what I'm doing, but it gives you like different circles of oil on the ball. So that

new ball surface is touching the lane the whole way down. So it doesn't build up oil on one stripe. And when it hits the drier part of the lane, it has virgin olive oil. It has a virgin oil-free surface to help it curve more. So Dave, let me get, if I understand this correctly, the first part of the journey of the bowl is on oilier surface than the last section. Yes. So where it's oily, you're not going to get much friction to curve the path. Is that correct? Okay. So, I always wondered why the ball curved more in the last...

I've seen this, and I never understood why, so that's why. It breaks hard. It breaks harder. Yeah, bowlers call that the back end. You want to have a strong back end where it curves hard and creates a good entry angle into the pins, which we can talk about later also. If we've spent enough time and sort of examined bowling

and come to the conclusion that Euler's equations of motions are involved, surely now there has to be an optimal speed, an optimal angle of approach, because otherwise I'm sticking that straight in the gutter. And we've got this configuration of pins, this triangular configuration, and we've all seen it. Let's say the seven and the 10 split where the two furthest pins away from each other are left and you've got a spare to try and clear them up. So how do I get out of that by using a bit of science, by thinking, right, there's an optimal speed, there's an optimal angle of approach, or am I daydreaming?

No, you're right on, right on topic. Let's talk about the pin numbering briefly because I'm going to refer to them at times. So the pins are in a triangle pattern. The head pin, the one in front, is called the one pin. That is so, so surprising. Then the number, this is surprising too, the next row is two and three. Then it goes four, five, six. Then it goes seven, eight, number, this is surprising too. The next row is two and three. Then it goes four, five, six. Then it goes seven, eight, nine, 10.

All right. So Gary just mentioned the seven, 10 split. That's a boiler's a bowler's nightmare. You have the far two pins in the corners that you leave as a spare. And it's pretty much impossible to convert, but it, but it can be made mostly through luck, but let's getting back, getting back to a strike. How does a bowler give themselves the best chance of getting a strike? You might think throw it right down the

middle and hit that head pin right in the center. Well, that's the worst possible thing you can do, but that's what most beginner bowlers try. They try to throw it in the middle. No, I think a gutter shot is worse than hitting the front. I'm just, you know, of all the worst things you could do, I'm thinking a gutter shot at worst. That's right. But if you throw it straight, you want it to hit off center slightly. That's how you can get a strike. But the problem is when it comes in straight, the ball deflects off the pins a little too much and it doesn't have enough power to drive through the center. And you often leave what's called the five pin, the one in the middle. Or sometimes you'll leave a 10 pin on the far corner because the ball's not coming in strong enough to send the other pins toward the 10. All right, so Bowler,

they want to come in at an exact six degree entry angle. All right, this isn't random. There's been extensive testing, extensive testing, lots of simulation to find this optimal angle. Chuck, that was my problem. I was coming in at seven degrees. And I was five and a half. Neil, that's your problem, man. That's your problem. Seven degrees is not six. It's not six.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you were doing seven-minute abs. It's the six-minute abs. You might think a bigger angle is better. Like, you might think, if I can get seven, isn't that better than six? Well, at some point, it's coming into the pins a little too steep, and it just kind of tunnels through and doesn't spread them as well. So people have found this six degree angle to be kind of optimal. It sounds like a small angle, but you have to curve it a fair

amount because it's only curving in that last part of the lane and the lane is really long and skinny. So you get an angle, you have to curve it significantly. Yeah. And is that the pocket? Bingo. For right-hander, it's called the called the 1-3 pocket. You're hitting the one and three pins first. And it's also called the Manhattan side. You don't want to go on the Brooklyn side. That's kind of embarrassing to a good bowler. You know? Because the term came from, you know, people in Manhattan,

they have to cross over the bridge to get to Brooklyn. All right? So if you cross over, if you cross over the head pin, you're hitting the left side. That means you weren't very accurate. You're hitting on the Brooklyn side, we call it. So is the gutter the jersey side what's up what's up tell the truth what's going on so what what if i just get brute force and ignorance to start bowling and just barrel one down there is it would it just be simple enough to just say it's velocity

or are we into spin rates and you know if i want to get this angle of approach and we're playing with a lane that isn't uniform from start to finish you bring up a good point because that entry angle is critical but the other critical thing is momentum you know the weight of the ball and the speed of the ball both contribute to the to the to your pin action how well you you bust up those pins so if you can throw a heavier ball faster it's going to help assuming you can get that angle, which is harder. The faster you throw it, the more difficult it is to curve it enough to get that angle. But if you can spin a lot, so bowlers want a lot of rev rate. Good bowlers, top pros, they can spin the ball almost 10 revolutions a second. So it's a pretty fast spin.

So you want to spin them as much as you can so you can throw it as fast as you can and still get that six degree entry angle. That's the secret sauce of bowling. Are you saying that if a person is weaker, they have to use a lighter bowling ball and all other things being equal, they will not be as successful at bowling

because they're using a ball with less mass? Some pros, 16 pounds is the maximum allowed weight. equal they will not be as successful at bowling because they're using a ball with less mass now some pros you know 16 pounds is the maximum allowed weight and for for many years all pros use 16 pounders but now they're migrating closer to 15 and you might think well why are they giving up that that free momentum well they can throw the 15 ball 15 pound ball faster so they can actually get and they can spin it more so it's a a trade off between the kinetic energy of its speed and the momentum you get from its mass. I guess there's two of those.

Again, the main thing you want is momentum. You want, you want mass or weight and you want speed. You want both, but yeah. Okay. Here's something that I thought was happening and maybe not.

And then we're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and pick this up some more. Does the spin, picking up on what gary said does the spin of the ball other than altering its direction of impact does it help knock a pin sideways better rather than bowl it down forward and help to create more sideways action helping you get those side pins a little better? Is that a thing? Not really, because most bowling shots, you have three kind of phases. You have the

slide phase, where it's spinning like mad, but sliding through the oil, very little friction. It's curving just a slight amount. Then you have the curve phase, where the friction is really grabbing and it's changing the direction of the ball. And during that curve phase, it's actually losing the side spin. And when it's done with the curve phase, it's actually mostly rolling. Mostly rolling in a straight line at the desired angle at the end. So it has very little excess spin left over when it's hitting the pins. I forgot that.

Of course, if you're spinning it and it's responding to that spin by friction, it's slowing down that spin. Of course that's going to happen. Wow. Okay. Guys, we've got to take a quick break. But when we come back, more on how to bowl a 300 and 10-pin bowling on StarTalk Sports Edition. We're back.

StarTalk Sports Edition. We're talking about bowling. How to be good at bowling. No, how to be perfect at bowling. There is such a thing as perfect. Ebola 300. And our special guest today, Dr. Dave Alcitor. Did I pronounce your name correct?

Right on. For the French side of my family, but the Italian side of my family likes Alcitor. Alcitor. I way prefer that, but I don't want to offend the French side. So, Dr. Dave, we've had you on before talking about billiards, and that was a fascinating show, one of my favorites. Dr. Dave, we've had you on before talking about billiards, and that was a fascinating show, one of my favorites, and only to learn that you have further expertise because part of your childhood you grew up in a pool hall

because your mother worked there. That meant you grew up in a billiard hall, which also had pool tables, but that meant you got free games. That's probably what that meant. Oh, you got that right. So maybe you're good, maybe you're good at bowling because you played for free, not because you actually studied the equations. Now, fess up.

Are you telling me I got a free ride, Neil? I'm telling you I got a free ride, man. Confess your privileges here, right? This is what you got to do. So, so tell me more, you mentioned this oil on the, you know, none of us are thinking that there's oil on the, none of us non-experts are thinking that anyway. Could you just give us a little more details about why is there oil there and how you have come to exploit that fact? And why don't you guys just get a rag? Well, there is a form of rag in the automated machine that puts down the oil. This is a computerized machine that puts the oil down in certain patterns. And it's not always the same pattern. Typically in a league

situation, they give us a fairly easy pattern. An easy pattern is where most of the oil is in the middle and then the oil doesn't go down a lane as far. All right, that's the optimal situation. And one reason is if you throw the ball across the oil, like from the left, if you're right-handed, you'll start to the left a little bit. If you throw it across the oil, it goes out. If you throw it out too far, it gets to the dry part of the lane sooner. And then it curves more. If you don't throw it out far enough, it stays in the oil and slides. And that's how you optimize your chances to get a strike. You have strategy based on how the oil is put down.

The optimal strategy. Wait, when you said throw it out, you mean the distance between where you release the ball and where it hits the wood? Well, that is one variable that some people adjust, but mostly I mean you're throwing it more to the right. If you're right-handed and you throw it more to the right, it hits the drier part of the lane sooner, and that lets it curve sooner, and you can still get a strike. You throw it too far to the left, it stays in the oil and doesn't curve as much, and you can still get a strike. So you can be, sometimes if you have your optimal strategy for the oil pattern, and you're throwing it in the best possible place, you give yourself the widest margin for error. Sometimes as much as like six inches, six to 10 inches, you can be off by that much and still get a strike.

And how much does alcohol come into play when making these calculations mentally? Well, people tend to get tense. Alcohol is actually a booster because it helps them relax a little bit, but that only works to a point. And then there's a difference between perceived and actual performance, Chuck. Of course. And alcohol makes your perceived performance amazing. You think. Well, clearly you've been to one of my conferences.

That's right. So, Gary, he's all yours, Gary. All right. So, I have to imagine now i'm bowling but the pattern of oil that's been laid down in the lane isn't fixed it's going to change every time a bowl goes down it so now i've got an organic situation that's changing in front of me so is it is it kind of like a major cheat code once I learn how to read the pattern, read the oil movement as bowls go down it,

and then distribute oil in different places on the lane? Well, there's three things there, Gary. One is you have to know what the pattern of oil is. They put down different patterns in different lanes. In pro tournaments, they actually put down a different pattern on each of the two lanes that they're bowling on just to make it more challenging. And sometimes they use a totally different ball, and sometimes they stand in a totally different place and throw it with a totally different speed and direction on each of those two lanes. That's the ultimate challenge. But again, in a league, they're

putting down pretty much the same pattern for us every week. And, you know, I've learned to find the optimal way to throw the ball to give myself the best chance of getting a high score. And how many balls, how many balls are you able to use if you're playing like a real tournament game? Can you say, okay, for my spares, I'm going to have a lighter ball or a heavier ball. For my first throw, I'm going to use a lighter ball. And then I have my second lane ball. I mean, what are the rules? No, there's no limits on the number of balls you can use. In fact, a pro, it might sound ridiculous, but they might have on the number of balls you can use. In fact, a pro, they might have, it might sound ridiculous, but they might have like 15 to 20 balls available,

and they might change balls in the middle of a match if it's not working out or if they're reading something in the oil pattern that they didn't anticipate. So there's no limit on the number of balls. So imagine carrying a golf ball, a golf bag, a golf bag full of these bowling balls around. ball, a golf bag, a golf bag full of these bowling balls around. Yeah. But typically most league bowlers, they have like their, their strike ball, their curve ball, and they have a spare ball. Spare ball is usually made out of a hard plastic that has very little friction, very smooth surface. Even if you can, and the beauty of that is you can throw it your normal

way that you throw a strike shot, which is your most consistent throw. And it's spinning like, like heck, but it just goes straight. Yes. You can aim straight at the pin to get that spare. Yes. Interesting. So how do you know once you get to the back end of the lane that you've got certain things going on with the oil distribution on the surface? How do you tell? You know, you're not allowed to walk down there and look at it or can you read it from the way the balls are moving the last thing gary all right so let me go back so first you have to know what what what the what the pattern of the oil is that they're putting down then you have to know how does that pattern change uh over time as you throw balls because the ball is picking up oil when it's going down that slick part of the lane and that oil is so

so you're actually removing a little oil from the first part of the lane and then that it's going down that slick part of the lane. And that oil is so, so you're actually removing a little oil from the first part of the lane. And in that it's carrying that oil down. So as the night goes on, as the games go on, and the oil is getting pushed down the lane and it's getting pushed in the area that your ball's curving. All right, so it tends to give you less curve

as the night goes on in that area. All right, so a good bowler has to adjust. They can't see the oil, like you pointed out, Gary. They have to adjust based on the reaction of the ball. So when the ball is starting to come in light, we say, it's not curving as much, we would typically move our feet to the left and aim a little bit to the left. That way, we're hitting fresh oil and we're hitting fresh dry lane down the last third of the lane. And we're hitting fresh, dry lane down the last third of the lane. Man.

So you've got to have a lot of experience to be able to read the oil patterns on the lane and then have the knowledge to know what will happen as a bank wish. But you just said they changed the oil patterns as well. So just to make it interesting. Not in the middle of a game. No, I'm saying before. With different starter patterns, right. But I'm saying before the game, do you guys get to throw, like how many practice throws do you get to throw?

Because that's not fair. You're starting a competition and you don't know what the terrain is. Exactly. We have to practice. Even in the league, they give us five or ten minutes of practice. And that whole time I'm hunting around. I'm hunting around, adjusting my speed, adjusting my spin, adjusting my aim point to try to find that optimal place to throw the ball. So that is critical in practice. You have to identify that.

To Gary's point, it's not that you can see the oil at all times as the tournament progresses. You are reading what is happening to the balls that are thrown and judging what the oil distribution is in that moment from the behavior of the ball. And a good player has to also realize, did that ball react like it did because I threw it a little bit too fast? Or because did I get a little extra finger in it and spin it a little bit too much? But a good player is aware of all that. And a good player also has to be accurate enough. It's no use reading what the ball does unless you can throw it in the place you're aiming every time.

You've got to make the adjustment. And can you learn something from the way your opponent? Oh, definitely. Yes. Yes. Every, every, every throw is information. Concentration. It's intense concentration, isn't it? Oh, you got to, just like any sport, you don't want to be too intense the whole time. You got to be focused and you got to pay attention and observe, but you don't want to be like, you're not, you're not super intense staring the whole time. Yeah, tell that to Tom Brady. That's right.

So there's a thing called the curveball strategy, which sounds like a baseball term, but it's not. It's applied to 10-pin bowling. So is that a successful strategy to cope with changing oil patterns? Oh, yes. Any good bowler throws a curveball to get that optimal six-degree entry angle. That's critical. You have to curve the ball

to have the ball come into the pocket at the good angle. And the amount of curve is affected by the oil. And as the oil changes over the night, the amount of curve changes and you're constantly making adjustments. But you're right. A curveball is critical to bow well.

I'm sure there's been some 300 games from people that throw the ball straight, but it's very rare. Now, these bowling technologies, like the weight block they put in the ball that allows it to get this gyroscopic effect that prevents the oil from building up on one stripe, when that technology came out about in the 90s, 1990s, the bowling averages in leagues and the number of 300s per year increased dramatically. And, you know, this is a problem. But tell me exactly what that is. What is? The block.

The weight block. Yeah, so a bowling ball, again, is not a homogeneous sphere. If it were, you wouldn't get gyroscopic effects. And the ball would build up a ring or a circumference of oil as it's going down the lane. And that would reduce the friction when it hits the dry part because it's spinning on this oil. So because they're inside the ball, a ball consists of what's called a cover stock. It's usually an inch or so thick of material on the outer part. There's a core inside of that.

That's a different material, usually harder. And then inside the core, there's a weight block. And as Gary mentioned, it's not always symmetrical. It's like generally the shape of like a little football, but sometimes it has nodular shape. They have all these patented shapes that different manufacturers come out with for marketing mostly, but they have different shapes that are asymmetric and they're placed in the core. They're cast inside the core in asymmetric directions. And when they drill your ball, there's a little plug that tells them what the axis of this core is. So when they drill the holes, they can decide what angle to put these holes at relative to the axis of the core. And now all that contributes to two things. It contributes to the gyroscopic effects and it contributes to what's called the radius of gyration which we talk about which you talk

about also i can't help wondering right because i don't think 10 pin bowling was initially started knowing that you'd oil the lane so a who came up with that clever idea and b what happens if you don't oil the lane oh that's great points. Yeah, the oil originally was to protect the wood, to treat the wood, and also to limit friction. All right, because if you had a totally dry wood surface and… Well, you'd end up with a big rut in the middle of the lane. You'd be three gutters. The ball would be like a trench digger. Exactly.

So they first, you know, they conditioned the lanes with the oil to treat the wood and also to reduce the friction. So the wood wouldn't get damaged too easily. And in the early days, people threw the ball straight, you know, and then the oil was there. And then somebody just like in, just like in billiards, one day somebody put a piece of leather on the end of the tip and then they were able to put spin. And then they started, they a whole new world of shots opened up. Same thing with bowling.

Somebody one day said, Oh, what if I spin the ball? It's going to slide through the oil and then curve. Does that help me? They didn't know at first, but through experience, they learned it helps a lot curving that ball. Has there ever been a Bugs Bunny shot where they throw the ball, but the ball doesn't leave their hand and the ball drags them down? You know, funny you should say that because as you know know i live in colorado and it's very dry normally but i played in the tournament this past weekend and uh there were a lot of people on the bowling lanes and it was getting a little warm my thumb starts to swell and get a little humid and then all of a sudden this the hole gets a little it's a little sticky

and i actually the ball stuck to my thumb uh uh once and it it didn't come out of my hand until my hand was way up in the air. And the ball went flying like 15 feet up in the air vertically, and it pulled me with me, and I barely caught myself. See, the problem, if you don't catch yourself, you go flying Superman style, and you land in this oil, you go sliding down the lane, just like the ball. Okay, so that can happen. Either that or you just leave your thumb inside of a ball. Ouch. Well, it does hurt. Otherwise, we'd have to add another law to the cartoon laws of physics to understand what happened there.

Well, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we want to learn more about bowling fashions. Or rather, what's up with the shoes? Why? with the shoes? Why? And whose idea was it when I'll just wear shoes that other stank people wore

just before me? Who came up with that idea and why? We're back. StarTalk Sports Edition, all about tent and bowling and the physics of it. We got David Alcitor, unknown to us previously when we had him on before talking about billiards, that the man is also a bowling shark. And very impressed by this. Dave, I want to pick up a point that you started talking about,

but I want to ask a little more deeply. You're saying today the ball has three components to it in its manufacture. An outer shell, let's call it, like my analogy is earth crust, okay, an outer shell, then we have a mantle that goes inside. But in the core is a thing that's not centered. It's off-center. So tell me what would happen if I mounted the ball on an axis and then spun it.

Would it just wobble? Is that what it would do? What's the spinning consequence to the ball for putting something in there that's off-center? Yes. Great questions, Neil. Yeah, so this asymmetry is what enables the gyroscopic effects. All right?

And the asymmetry comes from the shape of this core. It also comes from what angle do they drill the holes of your ball. It also comes from what angle do you spin the ball about as you throw it? So the ball is spinning about some axis. The ball has this asymmetry. Friction is acting on the ball. It causes the ball to do this gyroscopic precession or wobble or oscillating rotation, whatever you want to call it. And that creates what's called track flare. The oil doesn't build up under circumference. The oil creates these tracks that are flared out and separated. And when you get your ball back after you throw it, you can actually see these oil patterns on the ball. It's called track flare. And you can see these different stripes of oil in

the ball at these weird angles all around the ball. Oh my God. That's why every time you watch bowling on television, which by the way, I never do. Cause I have a life, and Saturday afternoons for me are very busy. But every time you see these guys approach the lane, they have like this cloth, and they're like polishing their ball, which I had no idea why they did that. So they're removing the oil? They're removing the oil. You want that ball to be- I never knew that.

Generate as much friction as possible. You also want your throw to be consistent. So you don't want to have oil on it and have the oil build up over time. You want to get rid of that oil. I just thought they really liked those balls. I was like, man, that guy is proud of that ball. They want it. Look at him.

He's just like, yeah, baby, it's okay. Daddy's got you, baby. Daddy's got you. And they want to shine it up so they can see their pretty face and their reflection too, huh? Oh, my God. So knowing this is happening and the weight block is offset, I will now have to structure my technique to bring the best out of that particular setup on a ball.

So it's always been a one-handed thing for me watching bowling at any time. But now the successful way is a two-handed bowl, which sounds a little bit like my mother would do, to be fair. Yeah, the two-handed throw is actually a fairly new thing, and it's actually not widespread yet. It is not new. No, Chuck did it when he was a baby. I was going to tell you, that was invented by three-year-olds.

Okay. Yeah, next thing you're going to tell me is they put gates up over the gutters. So there's something called fingertip grip, which... Now that is something, a fingertip grip is something that's prevalent. Everybody, any decent bowler, they don't stick their middle finger and index finger all the way into the ball, up to the middle knuckle. They only put the fingertips in or in the span, the span of the holes, the fingertips are much farther from the thumb than the balls you would see in a bowling alley. The balls you can use, the fingers, the finger holes are pretty close together, but any

good bowler, the fingers are further apart. You just put your fingertips in the ball, the index finger and middle finger, fingertips, then your thumb, that gives you a wider span. And when you want to apply spin, those fingers are the last things that come out. The two fingers, index finger and middle finger. Does that mean the holes aren't drilled as deeply there? That's right. That's right. They don't need to be, yes.

And so that gives you, it's like you're flicking the ball at the very end. You're kind of giving it a whip. It's like a whip effect on the ball. That's right. Okay, so if the holes aren't as deep, that means the balls are more symmetric. Well, the thumb hole's still deep. But when they drill the holes in the ball, it does create asymmetry. But these weight blocks, part of the issue is they put it off center slightly,

so when they drill the holes, it tends to balance it a little bit. So that's balanced. But most balls are actually not perfectly balanced, but that's balanced. But most balls are actually not perfectly balanced. But that's okay. But here's something. In Vegas, proper dice have holes drilled for the numbers and refilled with another sort of putty that has the same density as the material that they drilled out. So the numbers are in white dots and the dice are red typically.

Right. And so, so now there's no side that weighs more than any other because of that. If you have dice where it's just holes and that's it, it's a non-symmetric dice and it will not give you equal. And they go to extremes to make sure those dice are balanced as well. Not in my neighborhood they didn't. So the question we have to ask is, why do bowling shoes look like they've been stolen

from a 15th century medieval festival? And who convinced us that I should agree to stick my feet into somebody else's stank feet that have been there right before I arrived? And what is the incidence of athlete's foot amongst bowlers? Well, luckily, bowling alleys have a thing called Lysol. They spray Lysol on these shoes to help limit that, Chuck. But answering Gary's question, why do they look like they do?

No, she didn't say, she sprays it in to stop it. She says she sprays it to limit it. I caught that. You caught that. Yeah, that's a very, she sprays it in to stop it. She says she sprays it in to limit it. I caught that. You caught that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a very, very important distinction, Neil. You know, any good bowler has their own shoes, obviously. But, you know, the general population doesn't have their own bowling shoes.

You can't expect that. So you have to provide them. You have to provide them. And isn't it awesome, Gary, that they look so retro cool? They don't look like medieval English stuff. They look like retro cool American, dude. Nah. That's what they tell themselves. cool. They don't look like medieval English stuff. They look like retro cool American, dude. No, I'm not having that. Every time I see them, I'm waiting for Richie Cunningham to come to the door. Dave, there's got to be a reason why you have to have those shoes. You can't just come

in and bold in your own sneakers or something. Is there something special about these shoes, apart from the fact they look like they're from the 15th century? Very special. The part under your toes is actually a piece of leather that allows the foot to slide more easily on the wood surface on the lane. And the heel is actually more like a rubber. All right. And that serves as your brake. It's not really sticky rubber, but it's kind of a hard rubber. But if you try to bowl like in tennis shoes or something, you're not going to slide, you're going to stick and you might do the Superman thing into the oil. You don't want to do that. So you want to,

you'll want to slide in toward that foul line where you release the ball and the bowling shoes allowed to do that. And the heel, the rubber heel lets you put on the brakes if you're sliding too much. So it's all about the friction. Yes. Just the right amount, not too much, not too little. Exactly. Now good bowlers. They have a sense. They have a sense for, we kind of do this kind of instinctively using that heel. Like if we're slotting too much, we can kind of sense that immediately. We don't think about it. And then we apply a little more pressure to the heel.

So it all happens, you know, with experience, you, you take advantage of that leather and that rubber to control your slide optimally. Cause the surface gets dirty. Sometimes those teenagers that throw the ball with two hands, sometimes they get their sticky fingers all over stuff. Yeah. And they get their lanes dirty. Well, that's why they shouldn't be allowed in the alley. That's right. I understand that bowling is supposed to be a family sport,

but just for certain family members. How about if you bowl while you're still holding your beer? Is that allowed? No. members you know but how about if you bowl while you're still holding your beer is that allowed uh no in fact a good bowlers don't like when you have anything any food or drink in the lane area you know you have to be in the back you have to be back where the carpet is you know and by the counter they don't want you to have any kind of food will go out of business if they didn't allow eating eating the the what's with the the chips and dip. And the pizza. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, but there's lots of places to eat and drink behind the lanes. Gotta have nachos. Gotta have nachos. Yeah. What about the pins? Sorry, Chuck. Go ahead.

Go ahead. No. What about the pins, Dave? Because they are getting brutalized every time you throw a 16, 15-pound ball down the lane. How are you ensuring that their integrity is there? Because they just, I mean, what are they made of now? Are they still made of wood? Well, they were forever. You know, bowling's pretty old. It's like, it's literally thousands of years old. The Egyptians had a form of bowling. All right. And, but for a long time,

it would have been out of wood and they were turned on a lathe to give them that distinctive S shape and the wood pins, you know, they, they get chipped, they get cracked, you know, that, and they had to be replaced, you know, fairly often, but nowadays they are synthetic, a really tough material. And the good thing about the synthetic pins is they're more consistent, you know, wood has grain and wood has different properties in different directions and on different portions, but the synthetic pins, they're more, you know, they're more consistent and uniform. And that's probably contributed to the higher scores over the years as well.

You know, if things are more consistent and these machines that put down the oil, if they're better, if the machines that spot the pins in the correct places are more accurate with tolerances, if all that stuff is better, then we can bowl better. And that's what's happened over the years. Scores have gotten higher. How rare is a 300? How rare is a 300? Well, even league bowlers like myself bowl 300s every once in a while. This past weekend, I bowled a 279. That's not a 300. I've said 300.

Don't play that game. I'm letting you know how hard it is. So the 379, I had one shot where I threw it what I thought was perfect, and I had what's called a ringing 10-pin. The 10-pin is the one in the corner, and the pin in front of that is the 6-pin. And if the entry angle isn't exactly perfect, you don't hit it in exactly the right place, that 6-pin just wraps around the 10. Sometimes it touches it, and the 10-pin just ringing in place. It's ringing in place.

And that was the only mistake. I had all strikes except this one ringing 10. So it's very hard. Ah And that was the only mistake. I had all strikes except this one ringing 10. So it's very hard. That's why they call it a perfect game. I know. If you want to be perfect,

you got to be perfect. If it's not perfect, it's not perfect. That's right. So correct me if I'm wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong. So to bowl a 300, you have to roll

12 consecutive strikes. Exactly. Is that correct? Okay. So has anyone bowled two 300 games in a row? Yes. People anyone bowled two 300 games in a row? Yes. People have bowled three 300 games in a row.

That gives you a perfect series of 900. Ah. Wow. Okay. So now how about in your case? Based on that, I'm just going to say it ain't that hard. Okay. I'm just saying I've never heard of a pitcher who's thrown three perfect games in a row.

Yeah, I think bowling at 300 is easier. I think it's easier than getting a hole-in-one in golf, for example. It's easier than throwing a perfect game in baseball. But it's still hard. It's still hard. It's still hard. So for you, so how many perfect games have you bowled in your life? Only one.

But I've had many. I've had many 279. I didn't ask you about the other games. Okay. I know, that's like saying, that's like, Chuck, how many standing ovations

have you had? Well, one time, four people in the back stood up, but then I saw that they were just going to a concession stand. All right, so here,

I'll make you feel a little better. You ready? So, how many strikes in a row had you thrown before it and after it so that we can now get the total number of consecutive strikes that you've ever thrown? Oh. Yeah, and we keep track of that.

We know. We know what that number is. Mine is 18. So I threw 18 strikes in a row. Whoa. Yeah, very good. And. So I threw 18 strikes in a row. Yeah, very good. And one time I threw 16 strikes in a row and didn't get a 300. In fact, both games were like in the 250s or 260s, which is like mediocre. I don't get it.

How can you – if 12 in a row is a 300, how does 16 – Over two games. Over two games. Oh. So like I got the last – Oh, eight and eight. Yeah, like the last eight. Eight and eight.

Yeah, the last eight of the first game, the first eight of the second game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know what that's like, Chuck? The baseball analogy here is where you have multiple relief pitchers combining to pitch a no-hitter. Right. That's what that is. There you go.

It's like you staple it together. Yes. Staple it together. So no one pitcher gets a no-hitter, but they all sort of participated. Yeah. So has it ever happened to you where it's the last throw of the game because the 10th frame you just get three throws? Yes.

But if you pick up the spare. But has it ever happened where in the 10th frame, the last throw, you screw up your perfect game. No, I've never done that, but that is very common. Very common. I have a friend who did that, and he got 299. That's it. Yeah, you can get a 299, 298, 297.

But if your miss is somewhere in the middle of the game, you get a 279. That's the highest you can get if your miss is in the middle of the game. 279. Gotcha. Okay, go back to the lane. You've got the arrows, because the lane itself is a series of boards boards there you go and they all have these little arrows in there and i'm obviously they they're used as guidelines are there any other kind of markers on the real estate

that you can use to key off and get a better strike? Yeah, there are other markers. There's a row of little circle marks in front of the arrows. The arrows are about 15 feet down the lane, and that's what most bowlers use to aim. You don't want to be gazing down at your ball or gazing at the foul line. You want to be gazing at your distant target about 15 feet down the lane. So that's what most bowlers are looking at. They're trying to hit a certain board.

Between the arrows, there's boards. You can actually see the individual boards of the lane. So that's what most bowlers are looking at. They're trying to hit a certain board, you know, between the arrows, there's boards. You can actually see the individual boards of the lane. There's five boards per arrow and there's seven arrows across the lane. So there's, yeah, let's see, there's 40, there's 39 boards total. There's seven arrows, but there's two gaps on each side of the arrows. Anyway. All right. So yeah, most bowlers are aiming at a particular board. The boards are about a one inch wide and some good bowlers can, can hit their target within about an inch, fairly, fairly reliably. Uh, that's two inches. The pros are within an inch, you know, league bowls on me, like me, we can get within two inches, pretty reliably the whole night. We can hit our target within two inches, but if your speed is off a little bit,

if you throw it a little too slow, it curves too soon, and you don't get a strike. If you throw it a little too fast, it curves too late. If you don't release your fingers the exact same way, you don't get the same amount of spin, so you don't get the same curve. So there's so many variables. Isn't it amazing that this lane is-

I am almost developing a healthy respect for bowling. Well, thank you, Chuck, because I was perceiving a very strong disrespect earlier. Yeah, I'll tell you the truth. I'm going to be honest. I felt it too, Dave. I didn't like him dissing my 279s, man. Oh, God. No, this is, I have to tell you, Dave, that I think a lot of people suffer from this bias where because everyone can go bowling, people are under the impression that everyone can bowl.

Yeah. You know, or bowl well, or it's not as difficult as you just let us see, which it seems like it's a game of true precision. But at the same time, this is the beauty of bowling and billiards. You can be terrible and still have a great time. That's what I love about billiards and pool. Anybody can enjoy it. That's a beautiful thought. Dave, has anyone tried to sort of change the game,

make it sexier, more interesting, or is it as good as it's ever going to get as we find it right now? Well, like most sports and games, we don't want to change anything, right? In fact, these new balls that kind of revolutionize the game and kind of increase the scores a lot, purists don't like that because it changes the game

and then you can't compare today's performance to the past performance. So we want the game to stay the same. But having said that, technology has changed a little bit, and technique has changed somewhat. We briefly mentioned the two-handed bowling. All right, so most bowlers had their fingertips in the ball and their thumb in the ball.

But these two-handers now, they only put their fingertips in the ball. And they need the other hand to help support the ball so it doesn't fall off when they're about to release it. They have to help support it. So they go down the lane holding the ball with both hands. They have their fingertips in the ball only. And when they release it, they can put way more spin on the ball because they're not hampered by the thumb.

Everything's about those two fingers that spin the heck out of the ball and give a tremendous reverie. Plus, your other hand can help spin it also. Is that correct? No, the other hand is just there for support. They don't use that because when you're releasing the ball, the other hand comes off. You're just using the other hand to get you to that release point. Then the fingers do everything. So how about this? Because I just invented a version of bowling in my head, which is you take the hardest shots and you rank which shots are most difficult. And then the pin configuration,

you can choose to get the most points. So of course, the 710 would be worth the most. And, you know, the one pin by itself would be worth the least. And then you can figure out these configurations and then you get to actually choose which ones you will try in order to score more points. I like it. So basically each setup has a different difficulty level.

Yes. And if you get behind the game, you can take on the more challenging patterns. Right. So you can always come back and win depending on which level of difficulty you choose to roll your ball. I'm going to give you a little credit for that. Even though you disrespected me earlier, Chuck, I'm going to give you some credit. That's a good idea, man. That is.

I think you've taken the sport in a new direction, Chuck. Dr. Dave, it's great to have you back. And I'm afraid to ask you what else you're a world's expert in. We might find that out on another invite. Street dice is next. Street dice. Chuck and Gary, always good to have you, man. So that's a wrap on our StarTalk Sports Edition.

Bowling. How to be an expert. Know some physics. That's the takeaway from this. Know some physics. All right. And have a mom who used to work in a bowling alley. Combine those two, you're a winner every time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson here, your personal astrophysicist. Keep looking up.