# Bowling Balls Float!



## Captain Ahab (Apr 18, 2008)

Redbug made a post a few months ago about adding structure to his pond using bowling balls:

Here is what he wrote:



redbug said:


> Darn I was hoping they were bowling balls I was gonna claim them.
> they make great structure . My 1 farm pond has around 75 sitting on the bottom. The local alley is still looking for them. I go in with an empty bag and leave with 3 new additions to my rock pile
> 
> 
> Name with held to protect the innocent :lol:




A few evenings ago I took a few old bowling balls to my local lake to add structure - just like Redbug did. To my surprise, the floated.

A little online research (just like Doc Watson does) and I came up with this:
_
Let's start with some properties of water. How heavy is 8 pounds? It just happens to work out that one gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. Hmmm? Something smells a little fishy because 8 pound bowling balls float. If one gallon of water weighs 8 pounds and an 8 pound bowling ball takes up more space than a gallon of water, the ball will float! What did Archimede say about all of this? When an object is placed in water it will displace it's weight in water. The 8 pound ball is displacing 8 pounds of water. However, the ball also takes up more volume than 8 pounds of water, so it floats. It might be less confusing to simply say the 8 pound ball is less dense than water and the 16 pound ball is more dense than water where density is the mass of the ball divided by its volume. Hey, are you pulling my leg? NO! The bowling balls that we used on television were legitimate, competition-sanctioned bowling balls. For those disbelievers, the water was real, too. We suggest using an 8 pound ball for your less dense ball since it floats fairly high but a 9 pound ball will work just as well. A 10 pound ball will almost "hover" in the water! Anything heavier than 11 pounds will sink._

So, my problem was that the bowling balls must not have weighed more then 11 lbs. (I think they were 10 lb balls!!!!!!)

Anyway, the barely floated but certainly made no bottom structure


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## Jim (Apr 18, 2008)

:LOL2: 

A, Who's is lying?

B, Esquired you need bigger balls.


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## Gamefisher (Apr 18, 2008)

I never would have guessed it ](*,)


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## Leibs16 (Apr 18, 2008)

Who the hell bowls with ten lbs balls??? YOU WIMP!


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## Popeye (Apr 18, 2008)

I can bowl quite well with 14lb balls, but find just walking around with them a bit more difficult.


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## DocWatson (Apr 18, 2008)

esquired said:


> Redbug made a post a few months ago about adding structure to his pond using bowling balls:
> 
> Here is what he wrote:
> 
> ...



David, David, David....

You're supposed to "Plug the drain, fill the sink with water, and take the plunge with Steve's floating science challenge.", not throw the damn things in your local lake !!!!! [-X [-X [-X 

Here's a link to a more layman friendly version of the experiment. :mrgreen:


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## redbug (Apr 18, 2008)

the old 16lb balls sank.. i didn't bother with the lighter ones...


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## Jim (Jan 14, 2013)

Every time redbug posts i think to myself..............


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## redbug (Jan 14, 2013)

lol well my big balls did sink it is all about what you have inside your balls


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## BassAddict (Jan 14, 2013)

Ahabs head. 
Will it sink or will it float, 
Or C
Will it need to be cleaned up by Hazmat before it contaminates the lake? 

Please discuss among yourselves........


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## Popeye (Jan 14, 2013)

BassAddict said:


> Ahabs head.
> Will it sink or will it float,
> Or C
> Will it need to be cleaned up by Hazmat before it contaminates the lake?
> ...



Does it need to be severed from the body to conduct this experiment?


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## lovedr79 (Jan 14, 2013)

Hhhhhjmmmmmmmmm........ My wife has a ball in the basement, not the one tied to my leg but the one she used to bowl with. It may be making a trip to the pond.


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## BassAddict (Jan 14, 2013)

Popeye said:


> BassAddict said:
> 
> 
> > Ahabs head.
> ...



To preserve the integrity of the experiment it would need to be severed, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.


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## MOE (Jan 15, 2013)

Are yall really all that surprised that an 8 lb object will float? My boat weighs a few hundred lbs and it floats #-o


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## lovedr79 (Jan 15, 2013)

MOE said:


> Are yall really all that surprised that an 8 lb object will float? My boat weighs a few hundred lbs and it floats #-o




good point! there is a ghost fleet of concrete ships that are in the chesapeak bay. from WWII


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## fender66 (Jan 15, 2013)

First, I've enjoyed reading this post. Made me go Hmmmmmm a few times too.

Second, I'm also glad you guys have kept it clean. There's a whole lot of opportunity to take it somewhere else.

Third, I'm surprised at how easily impressed some of us are. I think I might try another experiment and start a post about my _big deck_ and see if anyone is surprised.

Just sayin'. :wink:


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## DocWatson (Jan 15, 2013)

fender66 said:


> First, I've enjoyed reading this post. Made me go Hmmmmmm a few times too.
> 
> Second, I'm also glad you guys have kept it clean. There's a whole lot of opportunity to take it somewhere else.
> 
> ...


You've got a big deck ???? :shock: :wink:


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## fender66 (Jan 15, 2013)

DocWatson said:


> fender66 said:
> 
> 
> > First, I've enjoyed reading this post. Made me go Hmmmmmm a few times too.
> ...



Huge! 38 foot long! Too big for me to walk around with for sure. And.....I like having parties on it.


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## redbug (Jan 15, 2013)

I also have a big deck... mine is 45FT by 25 ft so it is not only long but is also wide


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## Hanr3 (Jan 15, 2013)

So.......

Im thinking there is more to this mystery. I need to find my balls under the deck and go check this out for myself. 

Rats, its a 12 lbs ball.


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 16, 2013)

lovedr79 said:


> MOE said:
> 
> 
> > Are yall really all that surprised that an 8 lb object will float? My boat weighs a few hundred lbs and it floats #-o
> ...





When I was much, much younger (like 12) I spent many a summer playing around those ships catching varied sea critters! 

They are awesome

https://www.concreteships.org/ships/kiptopeke/



There is also the SS Atlantis off Cape May - not as impressive but a good spot for flounder all the same 










On a related note - my reef building efforts continued after this 1st post and I have several working now.


The original "bowling ball" reef built in *Apr 18, 2008 *is mostly gone, and I might rebuild it this spring


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