Getting the ball rolling
QUESTION Are ten-pin bowling balls weighted asymmetrically?
The standard bowling balls you pick up at the alley are basic spheres built for durability, not fancy moves.
Professionals use balls containing precisely shaped, meticulously balanced weight blocks called cores that leverage the laws of physics.
Cores may be symmetric or asymmetric and help create the curve, or hook, that allows them to ‘hit the pocket’, an angled impact on the first two pins at the apex of the ten-pin triangle that almost guarantees a strike.
The outer shell of the bowling ball is not ornamental — it influences the motion as the ball travels down the lane. When a bowler releases the ball, it skids down the lane through a thin layer of mineral oil. About two-thirds of the way down the 60ft lane the ball enters a non-lubricated zone. There, it gains traction through friction, grips, and begins to turn.
The outside layer, or coverstock, is highly influential on how a ball rolls. From the least to the most traction, there are three main coatings: plastic, urethane and reactive resin. These help determine how well the ball grabs the lane and whether it hooks. Reactive resin has larger pores and can create friction and traction in heavier oil conditions.
The inner core is made of powdered metal oxides, such as calcium or iron, mixed with a resin and hardening catalyst. A symmetric core gives the ball a smooth curve while an asymmetric one has a more aggressive late hook, though the extra friction results in less power.
A pro bowler will bring up to ten balls to a competition and will begin by throwing the most aggressive one, with an asymmetric core and reactive coverstock, to get a feel for the lane.
They will work through their arsenal to calculate the characteristics of the lane before settling on the ball with the right spin-to-power ratio.
Arnold Fowler, London E4.
QUESTION Did Polynesians originate in modern-day Taiwan?
PolynesiA is the term used to describe new Zealand and the islands lying to its north-east, in a broadly triangular area of the Pacific ocean. its western extremity is the Australian dependency of norfolk island; its northern end is marked by the hawaiian islands; and at the eastern side
is Rapa nui, aka easter island, one of the most remote permanently populated places on earth. some of its better-known island groups are the rugby-playing nations of Tonga and samoa.
The area is vast, in the region of 1.4 million square miles. Just 13 per cent is land, mostly made up of new Zealand and the hawaiian islands.
By tracing linguistic patterns of the languages used on the islands, known as Austronesian, it is thought the people originated in Taiwan.
Between 3,000 and 1,000 BC, the occupants of that island spread across south-east Asia. From there it is thought that they migrated to the Philippines and the eastern end of the indonesian islands, then continued east and south to populate more remote islands. Genetic studies support this model of migration through the westerly island groups of Melanesia and Micronesia.
What drove these people to travel so far is impossible to say. it may have been deliberate exploration or a gradual drift as family groups sought out new land or escaped hunger or disease.
The population of Melanesia, in the west, can be traced back to 1,400BC.
The Polynesians arrived in their most extreme location, Rapa nui, around 700-800AD — about the same time as the Danes were raiding Britain. People known as the Maori arrived in new Zealand around 1,300 BC.
Taiwan was once joined to the Chinese mainland when sea levels were 140m lower, much as Britain was once connected to France. The earliest evidence of its inhabitants comes from cranial fragments dated to between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago. The island was cut off by the sea 10,000 years ago.
Robert Sutherland, Northampton.
QUESTION Why are vehicle manufacturers’ badges and names blurred out in U.S. TV shows?
This is known as product displacement or, more colloquially, as Greeking — a reference to the phrase ‘it’s all Greek to me’. When copying portions of manuscripts they found untranslatable or illegible, scribes during the Middle Ages would insert the phrase Graecum est; non legitur, which means ‘it is Greek; it cannot be read’.
When it comes to TV shows, logos can be blurred, pixelated or strategically obscured. This may be done during production, with logos removed or hidden before filming starts.
on reality TV, where budgets are tight, the process often occurs during filming, using tape or markers.
There are a variety of reasons why it’s done. A trademark owner may demand a licensing fee to display their logo and the producers may not wish to pay.
Alternatively, a broadcaster may not want to give free advertising.
There might be a conflict of interest: a show may have advertisers paying for product placement or commercials, so will not want to give free airtime to a rival.
Finally, there are cases in which a trademark owner may object to its logo being displayed, particularly when a product is portrayed in a negative light.
emerson electric sued nBC because of a scene in its show heroes in which a girl’s hand gets hurt after being stuck in a kitchen waste disposal unit. nBC agreed to ‘Greek’ the scene.
A. N. Holman, Birmingham.
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