Could you roll a bowling ball to the pins faster than an elite sprinter could run to the pins. The sprinter would be forced to slide and crash into the pins just like the bowling ball.
Could you roll a bowling ball to the pins faster than an elite sprinter could run to the pins. The sprinter would be forced to slide and crash into the pins just like the bowling ball.
that depends... is the bowling ball being thrown by a world class shot putter?
It'd be close, the lane I bowl at clocks the speed of the ball as it hits the pins. when I got for speed I can get 20-21mph. I know sprinters can hit that, but they probably wouldn't be able to accelerate fast enough to catch the ball.
Sam wrote:
that depends... is the bowling ball being thrown by a world class shot putter?
No. The bowling ball would be thrown by a "tough as nails" lesbian truck driver. Mullet optional.
In the intial post, you mention a sprinter crashing into the pins, so I assume you want them running on the lane. In that case, the sprinter would likely fall on his ass multiple times trying to outsprint the ball. Have you ever stepped on a lane...they are extrememly slick with oil.
Is the lesbian wearing a long sleeve flannel shirt, or a dry-wicking Tennesee basketball jersey?
coopington wrote:
In the intial post, you mention a sprinter crashing into the pins, so I assume you want them running on the lane. In that case, the sprinter would likely fall on his ass multiple times trying to outsprint the ball. Have you ever stepped on a lane...they are extrememly slick with oil.
To avoid slippage, 15 minutes prior to the race we could soak the sprinter's spikes in a bucket of Mrs. Butterworth's.
For some reason, I think the sight of dipping spikes in syrup would enrage the lesbian, making for an intense competition.
I think the ball would win.
grif wrote:
Is the lesbian wearing a long sleeve flannel shirt, or a dry-wicking Tennesee basketball jersey?
the enraged lesbian truck driver would be wearing a flannel shirt with sleeves ripped off. everybody knows that.
Have to make sure that they aren't sleeves on the flannel. If there are sleeves on the flannel, it could affect the trajectory of the ball, thus putting it into the gutter and allowing the sprinter to slip by.
According to "The Physics of Bowling," a bowling alley is 19.15 meters in length to the front pin, a fast bowler releases the ball at >= 19 mph and the ball loses ~3 mph in velocity by the time it reaches the pins, so the average velocity of the ball being released at 19 mph is ~7.8 meters per second.
From Tyson Gay's splits in the 100m final in Osaka, the time to 20 meters was 2.94 sec, which is an average velocity of ~6.8 meters per second (a good sprinter is not close to max velocity by 20 meters).
So the bowling ball wins.
Dammit, you killed a solid conversation about lesbian truck drivers with the scientific mumbojumbo. i'm thoroughly impressed with your conclusion, but exponentially disappointed.
OK, what if the bowling alley were 40m? or had a 1% incline?
Yeah, but CoachD did not take into the account the amount of beer the flannel wearing lesbian truck driving bowler has consumed previously to bowling the ball. There are some very important pre-race nutritional aspects that need to be addressed before we simply allow science to provide empirical fact.