Brian McMahon, age 11, of Twin Falls, Ida., for his question:
WHEN WAS BOWLING INVENTED?
One of the oldest and most popular sports in the world is bowling. Earliest forms of the game go back to ancient Egypt. Equipment for a game resembling bowling was found by archaeologists who say it was used about 5200 B.C.
Ancient Polynesians also played a game that involved rolling small balls at round, flat disks about four inches in diameter. They rolled the balls 60 feet, the same distance that is used in bowling today.
Modern bowling can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The Germans rolled or threw stones at nine wooden clubs called kegles, and bowlers today are sometimes knows as keglers.
As early as the 1100s, bowling appeared in England and the game became very popular.
In the Netherlands, a game called Dutch pins was played. Pins were spaced widely apart. The bowler who first knocked down 31 pins, and no more than that number, won the game.
The Dutch brought their version of bowling with them when they immigrated to the New World during the 1600s. The Dutch residents of what is now New York City bowled in a section of Manhattan that is still called Bowling Green.
Gambling on bowling because so widespread during the 1800s that the Connecticut Legislature outlawed "bowling at nine pins." Bowlers evaded the ban by adding another pin and that is how the 10 pin game started.
About a third of the people in Canada bowl a game called fivepins. They roll a ball that is about five inches in diameter and weighs about 56 ounces. Five pins, spaced 12 inches apart, stand at the far end of a regulation 10 pin lane.
The pins are a bit over 12 inches high and have a diameter of about two inches at the neck and a bit over four inches at the widest point. A game has 10 frames and each bowler can roll three times in a frame if he does not score a strike or spare.
Other bowling games today include duckpins, candlepins, law bowling, boccie and nine pins.
Duckpins uses a ball five inches in diameter weighing no more than three pounds, 12 ounces. The stubby pins stand a bit over nine inches high. Duckpins is popular with women and children because it emphasizes accuracy and delicacy rather than power.
Duckpin bowling thrives in many parts of the eastern United States. The National Duckpin Bowling Congress reports there are more than 250,000 members who represent about 40,000 teams.
Candlepins is played chiefly in New England. The sport uses pins a bit less than 16 inches tall. The ball is the same as duckpins ball.
Lawn bowling, an outdoor game, is popular in Canada and in many parts of the United States. Boccie is an Italian form of lawn bowling.
Ninepins is a game in which the bowler rolls his balls at nine pins set in a diamond formation. The game is very popular in northern Europe.