Why and how are bowling alleys/lanes slippery?

Question

I just saw a person on TikTok that slipped when he stepped on the Bowling lane. I just wanna know why and how are they slipper?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Bowling lanes have oil applied to them, originally intended to help the wood lane surface last longer. But now it is a part of the game and the oil pattern that is laid down is essentially how the difficulty of the lane is set. The more difficult oil patterns are usually only laid out for the pros or “sport” leagues and most everyone else is on a more forgiving oil pattern.