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A mathematician's view of bowling*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

M. N. Brearley*
Affiliation:
85 Dandarriga Drive, Clifton Springs, Victoria 3222, Australia formerly of the Mathematics Department, University of Adelaide, Australia

Extract

The motion of a bowl on a grass green may be investigated mathematically, using the principles of dynamics established by Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727). The analysis gives a clear picture of how the bias operates, and reveals some surprising and little-known facts which are important from the bowler's viewpoint.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1996

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Footnotes

*

Editor's note: This article was brought to my notice by Donald Watson in a letter [Math. Gaz.79 (November 1995) pp. 579–580]. Because Maurice Brearley wrote the article several years ago all measurements are in imperial units. Metric conversions have been included in italics.

References

1. Brearley, M. N. and Bolt, B. A. The dynamics of a bowl, Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Maths. 11 (1958) pp. 351363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Brearley, M. N. The motion of a biased bowl with perturbing projection conditions, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 57 Pt 1 (1961), pp. 131151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar