Binomial bowling (Q2474638)

The game of bowling provides an inherent mathematical structure that can be analyzed under various probabilistic scenarios, when, for instance, we suppose that the bowlers are simply knocking down pins at random. In this article, the authors consider the scenario in which the pins are knocked down according to binomial distributions. On the first ball of each frame, each pin has equal probability \(p_1\) of being knocked down and pins fall independently of each other. On the second ball of each frame, each remaining pin has equal probability \(p_2\) of being knocked down, and again pins fall independently of each other. Spares and strikes are accounted for according to the regular rules of bowling. Under these conditions, the average bowling score for a game with \(N\) pins has been derived together with the correlation between the first roll and second roll in each frame. Moreover, it has been shown that the second roll and the resulting sum of the two rolls follow binomial distributions over the range of \(N\) pins.