Bowling, sliding?

Question

When I play bowling, I observe that the ball first sliding without rotating. Could anybody tell me why it happens?

Isn't friction present? When it can just slide and not rotate?

Is that the ball is too fast? Or it that the friction is too small for the ball to rotate? But after the ball rotate for a period, it does rotate very quickly.

Why?

Answer 1

The ball slides for a bit on the polished and oiled lane, then catches and starts rolling.

Oily lane, low coefficient of sliding friction.

Very cool to watch both the ball and the bowlers slide on the lanes.

Answer 2

The ball is sliding at first because of the oil on the lanes. Each type of bowling ball will react differently in oil and on the dry portions of the lane. Here is a good article explaining the different types of bowling balls and how they react. It may help explain it better.

http://www.bowlersalley.org/Bowling_Arti...

Answer 3

Actually no ball can roll without slipping. There is always some "slip" (rubbing, loss of energy) and this makes the ball slow down after some time and stop due to friction.

The ball does not at first rotate when it is thrown straight is because all the particles in the ball are in translatory (linear motion)

After it hits the alley's surface, friction acting at the edge of the ball sets up a torque which makes it rotate

The mass inertia of rotation opposes this rotational torque for a while until it reaches a maximum rotational speed

So it will take some time for the ball to start rotating at its fullest speed