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Related: About this forumDeflation Experiments Show Patriots May Have a Point After All
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The Patriots have absorbed a beating in that larger contest, with many scientists concluding that only the surreptitious hiss of air being released from the balls could explain the difference. But now the Patriots have started to rally, and in a big way. Healy, who provided The New York Times with an advance copy of his technical paper on the experiments, concluded that most or all of the deflation could be explained by those environmental effects.
This analysis looks solid to me, said Max Tegmark, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who reviewed the paper at The Timess request. To me, their measurements mean that theres no evidence of foul play.
Other evidence is also turning the Patriots way. In a usually obscure profession that has received extraordinary attention during the controversy, some academic and research physicists now concede that they made a crucial error in their initial calculations, using an equation called the ideal gas law.
When that error is corrected, the amount of deflation predicted in moving from room temperature to a 50-degree field is roughly doubled. Healy, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, went further: He measured the pressure drop in 12 footballs when they were moved from a room at 75 degrees to one at 50 degrees (the approximate temperature on the field in the Colts game).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/sports/football/deflation-experiments-show-patriots-may-have-science-on-their-side-after-all.html?_r=0
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Oh wait, that would make no sense whatsoever.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)"I asked (Brady) at one point, 'so you're telling me, when this investigation is complete, which the (NFL) is now saying will not be until after the Super Bowl, you will be I don't think I used the word exonerated but, be they fan or foe, no one will be able to pin anything on Tom Brady,'" Costas told Dan Patrick. "and he said something to the affect of 'well, let's just wait and see how it comes out.' Which I thought was an intriguing answer."
Patrick asked if Costas followed up to see what Brady meant by the answer and Costas simply responded, "I think (the answer) kind of spoke for itself."
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However, Brady's answer to Costas could be used to validate the growing belief of many that the Patriots' continued confidence that no rules were broken may be a sign that the team used a loophole or a way around the rules in order to use footballs that were underinflated.
One example is the theory that the footballs could have been inflated with hot air, something that would cause the pressure to drop without actually deflating the balls.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12102484
Panich52
(5,829 posts)So does that mean Colts cheated by keeping their balls, and one (1) of Pat's balls properly inflated?
Or is it that physics is an 'if' in football? After all, new rules in past couple years ask tacklers to break laws of physics in the name of safety.
qazplm
(3,626 posts)none of the Colts balls went through this.
The second half balls for the Patriots didn't go through this.
That suggests to me that:
1. Whatever happened to the first half balls was the result of treating them differently from the 2nd half balls.
2. If 1 is true, that is almost absolutely an indication of human, intentional actions.
braddy
(3,585 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)And no, I would never call it a sport. There is nothing sporting about a bunch of bullies beating each other.
Sorry to deflate your balloon (so to speak). But I despise US football.
And I have never watched a Stupid Bowl, not even for the ads, let alone for the sophomorically staged costume misadventures.
Sorry, my good friends. I just don't like such an inherently violent sport.