Guest post by Alec Rawls
Just fill the ball with warm humid indoor air, then when it temperature-equalizes with the 25°F cooler outdoor air on your AFC Championship playing field some of the water vapor in the ball will condense into water, leaving less air in the ball, solving the great mystery: how did the footballs used by the Championship winning New England Patriots show 12.5 psi of inflation pressure in the official pre-game check but only 10.5 psi when checked at halftime?
There is also a decrease in pressure due to the cooling of the molecules that remain gaseous. Those air molecules are not zipping around as fast as they were so they exert less outward pressure on the ball. But according to the ideal gas law, if there were no reduction in the number of gas molecules in the balls it would have taken a large drop in temperature, about 40°F, to cause the observed drop in air pressure. So says Boston College professor Martin Schmaltz:
In order for a ball to register a 10.5 PSI in a 50 degree environment [the temperature on the field at halftime] but register a 12.5 PSI in the testing environment, the ball would have to have been inflated, stored, and/or tested in a 91 degree environment.
I verify Schmaltz’s calculations at the end of this post, and while I’m no expert in the field, I get the same answer he does.
It wouldn’t be hard to deliver balls to the pre-game pressure check with 91° air inside. Just inflate them in a 100° sauna shortly before testing, but the Patriots are adamant that they do not know why the air pressure in their balls was low at halftime and if they had inflated their game balls in a sauna they would certainly know it.
The Carnegie Mellon experiment
An experiment performed by a team at Carnegie Mellon provides empirical support for the Patriots’ claim to have done nothing unusual. The Carnegie experimentalists inflated a batch of footballs to 12.5 psi at a room temperature of 75°F, then let the balls equalize to a new ambient temperature of 50°F, resulting in an average pressure drop of 1.8 psi. (They also wet the leather balls to simulate the rainy conditions of the game, surmising that this might allow stretching that would reduce air pressure in the ball, but this seems likely to be a minor factor.) The Carnegie experiment is video-documented here:
So how to account for the difference between the Carnegie findings and the ideal gas law, which predicts that a much larger decrease in temperature would be needed to create the observed pressure drop? Barring experimental error, it seems that the difference would have to be explained by condensation. Gas was removed from the ball, not via an inflation needle but by conversion to liquid water. What do our blog-reading experts say? Is this the likely explanation?
The Carnegie group was not monitoring humidity (at least in the short video above), but if this is the explanation for their greater-than-ideal pressure drop then it could easily have happened to the Patriots the same way without anyone intentionally manipulating the inflation temperature or humidity. Still…
It must be common knowledge around the league that indoor inflation yields a softer game ball
The fact that the Colts’ balls did not show a similar pressure drop suggests that teams do know how to make these manipulations. Just as Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady prefers to throw a less inflated ball, other quarterbacks
are known to prefer harder footballs.
If Colts quarterback Andrew Luck prefers a harder ball then all the Colts had to do is fill their balls pre-game with cool outdoor air. Ambient outdoor temperatures actually rose from pre-game to halftime so the temperature effect would have made their balls firmer. Also, moisture beyond what the cooler air could hold would never have made its way into the ball in the first place so wouldn’t there be any pressure-reducing condensation inside the ball either.
Players and equipment managers would surely have noticed over the decades how the conditions in which balls are inflated to regulation pressures affect ball firmness on the field. The basics are hard to miss. In cold conditions, inflate outdoors to get a firm ball, indoors to get a softer ball.
The existing pressure-test regimen, intentionally or not, leaves this room for teams to manipulate ball pressure to suit their preferences. The rule just says that air cannot be put into or removed from the ball after the pre-game pressure check. It does not regulate the conditions in which the balls are inflated going into the pre-game pressure check.
“Belichick rules”
If Coach Belichick had exploited this loophole to the max by inflating balls in the sauna then there would be a legitimate question whether this rule-bending constitutes cheating and there is plenty of history, both recent and ancient, to indicate that Belichick is eager to wring every advantage out of a loophole that he can. Where others may see exploiting loopholes as cheating, Belichick sees it as part of the game.
By the time he is done the NFL rule-book will contain at least a few “Belichick rules,” closing the loopholes he has so nicely pointed out, most recently by confusing the Baltimore Ravens about which Patriots players were eligible to receive passes. “It’s not something that anybody has ever done before,” complained Ravens coach John Harbaugh, “I’m sure the league is going to look at it and make some adjustments.”
Belichicks’ reward (besides a trip to the AFC Championship): he is now tied with Tom Landry for the most post-season coaching wins in league history, to which I say GO PATRIOTS! (That’s what you call “full disclosure.”)
But the full explanation in the present case seems to be that the Patriots filled their game balls with indoor air. If that is manipulation at all it must be utterly commonplace and well within the rules.
The biggest loser: Bill Nye, the phony-science guy
While real scientists keep acknowledging that the move from inside to outside can cause a substantial drop in football psi, Nye went on national television to proclaim that air must have been taken out of the balls with a needle. So that’s good anyway. Half the Northeast now knows that Bill Nye is an idiot.
Addendum: Gas law calculations
I was looking up how to calculate the expected pressure drop in a ball for a given temperature drop when I came across the claim from Boston College physicist Martin Schmaltz that, following the ideal gas law, temperature inside the balls would have had to be 91°F during the pre-game pressure check to account for the 2 psi drop in air pressure by halftime. In the exercise below I come up with a similar answer but I have no background in this stuff and am just following readily available information so don’t take my explication on authority (and please do note any inaccuracies in the comments).
When the number of gas molecules in a container is fixed (no gas escaping out through the bladder and no gas converting to liquid via condensation) then the ideal gas law simplifies to the general gas law, also called the combined gas law. Like the ideal law, the general law is said to be close to accurate so long as extreme pressures or temperatures are not involved. Mathematically, the general law just says that gas temperature, volume and pressure all vary in direct proportion to each other:
(P1V1)/T1 = (P2V2)/T2, where P1 is pressure at time 1, V1 is volume at time 1, and T1 is temperature at time 1.
In plain language, for the gas pressure in the Patriots’ footballs to drop by 7% the general gas law says that the temperature of the air in the balls must drop by 7% or the volume inside the ball must increase by 7% or there must be a combination of percentage changes in temperature and volume that add to 7.
The problem can be simplified further by assuming (as Professor Schmaltz does) that the volume of the space inside the football remains constant. (This won’t be fully accurate. When pressure in a ball drops the volume inside the ball will drop a small amount. This shrinking of the ball will make pressures higher in the low pressure state than they would be if the ball didn’t shrink so the constant-volume estimate of the temperature change required to account for the observed pressure drop will be a bit on the low side, unless the Carnegie experimentalists are correct and there is an offsetting increase in volume when the balls get wet.)
With fixed volume the general gas law becomes: P1/T1 = P2/T2
All of these numbers are known except for T1, the temperature of the air in the ball when it was first tested 2 hours before game-time. The known numbers just have to be converted from relative to absolute form.
First, the inflation pressures measurements are in pounds per square inch above atmospheric pressure, thus to get the full pressure inside a ball it is necessary to add atmospheric pressure (about 14.7 psi) to the measured psi.
Also, the gas law is based on degrees above absolute zero, which for Fahrenheit-sized degrees are “degrees Rankine,” which are Fahrenheit + 460. Solving for T1 in degrees Rankine:
T1 = (P1 x T2)/P2 = ((12.5 + 14.7) (50 + 460))/(10.5 + 14.7) = (27.2 x 510)/25.2 = 550.5°R = 90.5°F
Which rounds up to Professor Schmaltz’s 91°F.
Calculations for the Carnegie-Mellon experiment
In the Carnegie-Mellon experiment the expected post-equalization ball pressure, calculated just using the general gas law (where no gas is lost to condensation), is:
P2 = (P1 x T2)/T1 = [(12.5 + 14.7) x (50 + 460)]/(75 +460) = 25.9 psi
Subtract atmospheric pressure (14.7 psi) to get an expected pressure test reading of 11.2 psi, vs. actual experimental readings of 10.7 psi. The suggestion here is that the additional pressure drop found in the Carnegie experiment is a result of water vapor condensation.
If the Carnegie experimentalists were careful they would have compensated for the pressure drop that comes from energizing their pressure tester but game officials (who measured halftime pressure as 10.5 psi) might well not have taken this source of pressure loss into account. If they had the then the difference between their measured pressure drop of 2 psi and Carnegie’s measured drop of 1.8 psi might disappear.
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<rant on>
Oh give me a break. It doesn’t take CMU students (I’m CMU BSEE ’72) to do the experiment, some vo-tech students in eastern Mass did that.
It doesn’t take Neil DeGrass Tyson to do the math (he flubbed it any way), it’s just high school physics. I’d even forgotten that direct proportion between temperature and pressure was named Guy-Lussac’s law. No need to invoke PV = nRT, just P = constant × T.
Invoking condensation is interesting, but not necessary.
And I’m tired of the @ur momisugly$&$ subject…..
</rant off>
Ric. I know what you mean about being tired of the subject. I don’t like any kind of games. The great thing about it was it did expose Bill Nye. Anthony did a good job of that many months ago with the heat lamp experiment but not near as many people saw it. I thought the whole affair did enlighten many people to the wrong notion that things in physics can be boiled down to simple ideas. I was glad to see that an accounting of the air loss each time a pressure measurement is made. I have been surprised that no mention has been made of possible errors of the measuring devices and the reading of the devices. Also the temperature of the balls could have been raised signicantly by hand rubbing to roughen the surface.
“The great thing about it was it did expose Bill Nye.”
And to prove that he is all about perception, lacks knowledge/education in real(atmospheric) science, objectivity and ethics/honesty, this gifted performer made a fraudulent video to prove he is right about the ideal gas law science that he is blatantly wrong about.
http://www.avclub.com/article/bill-nye-also-investigates-science-deflate-gate-214608
Then, he used it to pitch/appeal to people to get behind his other fraudulent “climate change” atmospheric science.
The video is consistent with his knowledge about another gas, CO2. Clearly it’s greatly benefiting life on this planet………..while he uses his position as a celebrity and perceived scientific expert to state and promote complete scientific falsehoods about its effect on weather and climate.
For the record: I’ve been an operational meteorologist for 33 years and Bill Nye’s communicated understanding of the atmosphere makes him either delusional or he represents the diabolical side of human beings that will use their powerful position to intentionally lie in order to influence as many people as possible to advance their fraudulent, personal agenda.
Like and overheated alarmist, isn’t a football just another gas bag?
If this is true, why has this issue come up before. I live near Chicago, it should happen every game after October.
It only comes up when someone complains to the referees – I think the Ravens got grumpy and said something which the Colts picked up on and made a complaint about it. It may result in a change to the way the ball inflation is measured which may make the game marginally fairer (but if each team uses their “own” balls on offence, I am not sure where fairness is an issue here), but it is hardly a scandal.
Personally, I think this is just anti-Patriot grumbling by the chattering classes who don’t like to see anyone win too much. The Yankees get the same attention, as do Manchester United in the English Premier League. The draft system in football works against long-term domination, but with an organization like the Patriots they will always be there or thereabouts come play-off time.
P.S. In the interests of full disclosure I am a long-suffering Redskins fan – please have sympathy.
Simple physics and actual testing reveals the real scandal.
Recent news reports reveal that the balls used by the Patriots were not under inflated by 2 psi but only by about 1 psi. The only ball with a 2 psi drop was the one handled by the Colts!![1]
Repeating the calculations above using a 1 psi loss results in an initial temperature of 69F and not 91F. A locker-room temperature of 69F seems well within normal range. No additional pressure loss due to humid air is necessary.
Additionally, the written report by HeadSmart™Labs on their ACTUAL testing of 12 footballs indicated an average pressure loss of 1.1 psi due to the inside/outside temperature differential alone and another pressure loss of 0.7 psi due to the wetting of the balls.[2] Natural conditions alone explains “deflategate.”
The real scandal was the premature conviction and unbridled persecution of the Patriots by the media. This particular scandal continues as the media by-and-large ignores the exonerating testing done by HeadSmart Labs and does not conduct the most basic due-diligence investigations.
[1]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/25/nfl-bears-plenty-of-blame-for-deflategate/
[2]https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/131228/d8f159cc-99db-47be-b8d1-1828d64dde17/HeadSmartLabs_The_Science_Behind_DeflateGate.pdf
“The real scandal was the premature conviction of the Patriots by the media. This particular scandal continues as the media by-and-large ignores the exonerating testing done by HeadSmart Labs and does not conduct the most basic due-diligence investigations”
This is nearly the same thing with global warming.
When you start a compressor and it runs for a while, it will contain hot, moist air due to adiabatic compression– mystery solved. If we know our quarterback prefers softer balls, we wait to inflate them until just before we have to get them checked. We turn on the compressor, wait for it to come up, inflate the balls, then take them to the refs. Two hours later, they are a bit softer— just like our quarterback prefers. No rules broken.
Also, when you check the pressure and it is 12.5 psi and then you pull the needle out, a bit of air escapes. Then if the refs. check it, a bit more escapes. Then you take it out to cooler temperatures. So you do lose a bit of air each time you check the pressure. Also, I’m sure tiny amounts escape when a 250 running back falls on the ball and then 1,000 pounds from 3 other players pile on. Those valves can flex and move a bit and you may have small amounts of air escape during a game.
All the checks prior to the ref checking are irrelevant, because if your checks cause it to fall below the regulated PSI before the refs check it, it would be illegal.
The obvious thing to do here is let the quarter backs inflate (or deflate or abrade it or spit on it or whatever) the ball to whatever condition makes them happy. It’s impossible to police every little detail when the rules were modified in 2006:
Two of the biggest stars in the league, New England quarterback Tom Brady and Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning, formed an alliance to change a rule that had pestered them for a while. Instead of having the home team supply footballs to the opposing offense, which was the existing method, the quarterbacks proposed visiting teams bring their own sets already worked in to their liking to be used on offense.
Jeff Fisher, the Tennessee Titans coach and co-chairman of the competition committee, said there wasn’t any resistance to the rule, so it was easily passed.
“The thing is, every quarterback likes it a little bit different,” Brady said. “Some like them blown up a little bit more, some like them a little more thin, some like them a little more new, some like them really broken in.”
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2006-11-28/sports/0611270475_1_new-football-new-england-quarterback-competition-committee
Yes, it is a tiring subject an not a very exciting one at that.
—
I didn’t really check but has anybody noticed that the amount of air isn’t reduced,?. The air pressure is reduced.
😉 Well, clearly Bill Nye can’t do the basic math required.
Which is why Bill Nye isn’t a technician or scientist, but a reporter.
I really have to wonder why so much time and effort has been devoted to this issue, but then, not being a sports fanatic, I wonder why anyone would spend ANY time, money, or effort on it.
Since a later report I read indicated the balls were closer to 11.5, this appears to be nothing more than ball inflated in a warm locker room deflating normally when cooled 20ish F. And since there is nothing in the rulebook making this illegal, there is really nothing more to see here. And Bill Nye is a moron.
Yes, him too. I wrote him off back when people were still making new episodes of The Magic School Bus.
I bet Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard) inspired more people to become serious scientists than Bill Nye ever will. Hmm, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bill Nye inspired Michael Mann to become a climate scientist.
My favorite Bill Nye commercial http://youtu.be/WidigCsya5w
THANKS Ric for mentioning Don Herbert! As “Mr. Wizard” on his wonderful.TV show (that I still remember was sponsored by The Cereal Instirute) he inspired me as a kid to do electrical experiments and eventualily become an Electrical Engineer and then a System Engineer.
I loved the “Big Bang Theory” episode a few years ago where Bill Nye, the “Science Guy”, was lampooned by “Professor Proton” (played to perfection by Bob Newhart).
Ira
Don Herbert did not make me want to become a working scientist, but he did instill in me a love of science, which I retain today at age 71. I do not see Bill Nye as filling his shoes and the fact that there are positions in science and technology waiting to be filled is proof of that I think.
Oh there is plenty to see here, even if not technically breaking any rule. You may choose to ignore the seedier side to this whole episode. It does not mean other people will do the same.
Nothing seedy about it. It’s reading the rules and being extremely clever about your interpretation. The racing world is FULL of stories doing exactly this. If the NFL wants to tie this loose end up, they will add a temperature spec to the psi range. 13 psi +/- .5 at 70F. Done.
If intentional but not technically breaking any rules makes Bill Belichick a genius. The whole incident can be completely avoided in the future is the refs are simply in control of the game balls at all times.
> P2 = (P1 x T2)/T1 = [(12.5 + 14.7) x (50 + 460)]/(75 +460) = 25.9 psi
You’re making the assumption that the 2.0 psi underinflation was made to three places of accuracy. I checked amazon.com a few days ago and now all I see are ads for sports pressure gauges, most of which are real crap. Including those from Wilson, the manufacturer for the NFL balls.
How was the Patriot’s gauge calibrated? How was the refs? Do the gauges use something decent like a bourdon tube ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Manometer_inside.jpg/200px-Manometer_inside.jpg ) or are they the pencil-style throwaway tire pressure gauges? Does the needle have a peg that stops it before zero so you can’t tell it’s miscalibrated?
Oh, let’s just leave rant on….. 🙂
To add to this discussion, the Coach indicated that the balls were “prepared” by the patriots staff just before testing by refs – http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12221498&ex_cid=espnFB this link shows the procedure in Green Bay 15 minutes before testing. It would be interesting to check the air pressure after being “conditioned”. We still have not heard from the NFL regarding the actual air pressures before the game, and at the 2nd time they tested it. Everyone is accepting the ESPN report of “2 psi” under as fact.
There is already debate that the balls may have only been 1 psi under which makes the reduction of 1 psi via natural causes all the more likely.
http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/pft-patriots-footballs-may-have-been-closer-115-psi
This is the first mention I’ve seen of calibration.
Maybe the Patriots science guy hand picked a gauge that read on the high side?
I read on a blog where the sports fans have argued DeflateGate to death. There are four from the Boston area who have acted as defense counsel. I don’t think this will ever be solved; an argument for the ages. For sports fans.
Even I, enumerate I, could discern trouble with some of the statistics presented by plaintiff’s counsel.
===============
Well this will never be tried in a court of law, but instead in the court of public opinion which usually decides based on emotion and ignorance and rarely gets anything right including electing competent leaders.
There is circumstantial evidence and Belichek’s past history for Goodell, but it is doubtful a smoking gun emerges unless a staff member comes forward and incriminates Belicek or Brady. In which case that person will never work for an NFL team again.
Goodell will look for an out on this mess in the same way Belichick looks for loopholes in the rule-book, but will only partially succeed with the Patriots, Goodell, and the NFL looking worse for the wear.
The sauna theory is also my explanation for what happened, and why Belichick, Kraft & company can unequivocally say they did nothing illegal and followed all the rules. You know, like cutting in front of people in a check-out line is not illegal but in poor taste and could start a fight or a scandal as in Belichick’s case.
Belichick may be the only coach who in a addition to a full compliment of assistant coaches employs a team of lawyers to find out how to skirt, via technicalities, the spirit of rules in the rule book. Whether this is cheating or not depends on how you feel this approach is beneficial to the players and spirit of the game of football.
As far as Bill Nye, I am not even sure if he knows how to add using a calculator anymore.
He very much reminds me of that moron wizard professor Lockhart from that one Harry Potter movie who’s best trick was telling everyone how wonderful he was.
Considering the subtext behind that character I think the comparison is a trifle offensive.
Nye may be a self-promoting fool who hasn’t got the understanding that he thinks he does but he is only a fool.
reminds me of Pee Wee Herman
Pee Wee knew exactly what he was doing. He was a master at it.
Being intelligent enough to use technicalities in the rule book to your advantage simply exposes badly written rules and lends to the brilliance of coaches like Belichick. This is not remotely cheating.
They should test the pressure by squeezing on the outside.
===============
The debate has gone balls up.
I think the proper phrase is “balls out”.
It’s not going that fast…
And here I thought Rankin was a family of singers from Cape Breton.
I would prefer seeing metric calculations, Kelvin, Neutrons and Vulcan’s.
These kinds of problems were solved long ago for hockey pucks in the Canadian sport known as hockey.
Changes in atmospheric pressure could also play a role, could they not?
Was the atmospheric pressure different on the Colts’ side of the field?
The pressure could have been different inside the locker room (or wherever the balls are initially tested) than it was on the field.
Barometer could have moved somewhat between game start and halftime (on both sides of the field).
Yes, slp, barometric pressure changes during the game could have an effect, but it would be very, very small. The fastest barometric pressure might change in a few hours would be a few tenths of an inch of Mercury (Hg). A change of 1.0 Hg is equivalent to about 0.5 psi, so a change of 0.2 Hg would change the pressure by 0.1 psi. That is much less than what might be caused by a temperature change of 25 F, or even expansion due to wetting the balls. Ira
I know that my car tyre (Sorry, Yanks – tire.) pump can get very hot from compressing air. If they ran the inflator for a while then inflated the match balls the air inside could be well above ambient, leading to a large pressure drop as they cooled.
And that air, upon leaving the accumulator tank on the air compressor, would experience a temperature drop on expansion.
I thought about that. It’s a non-starter.
I haven’t seen anything about what the balls started at. I’d guess they were slightly underinflated, and only a little was added. OTOH, if they deflated the balls and then filled them with helium (or would argon be better?), then things get really confused because you’d have to account for the pressure in the supply tank and heat gain from the tubing warming the expanded gas.
Gaia has weighed in with the Obama Effect, three feet of frigid obfuscation.
You see, she hasn’t access to the press, so goes about it her own way.
==============================
Hmm. Where does ‘playing the game’ stop and ‘gaming the game’ begin; it’s a very fine line.
If it’s not against the specific rules and there is no general rule that “the equipment must be prepared without consideration for any home advantage” then… good on him if he did do it. Clever.
It sounds like just an accident though. Disappointingly.
More interestingly, if this is covered by rules than the calibration and maintenance regimes for the ball inflation pumps need to be regulated. At least the referee’s checking devices do.
Is this why American Football needs so many stoppages? To allow for legal challenge?
Is this why American Football needs so many stoppages?
No. The frequent ‘stoppages’ are provided for those who do not understand the game well, as an intermission of sorts, while they re-read the rules and cogitate on the implications.
I was recently reminded of this cricket video, and I am posting it for the sake of all those Americans who do not yet understand the worlds second* most popular sport. I think it will make everything perfectly clear.
Warning: Australian Language.
*Association Football is the most popular.
Almost … AB de Villiers smashes fastest ODI half century in just 16 balls
http://youtu.be/csJJX8yDYTk
That’ll help, too.
I cant watch it either. Grew up on Hockey and Rugby. More action. I especially loved Aussie Rules Football, when they had it on the sports channel back in the 80s here in Canada.
“Half the Northeast now knows that Bill Nye is an idiot.”
The other half of the Northeast now knows that Bill Nye is an idiot. Half of them knew it already.
beat me to it…
what about the other half that never heard of him?
Who is Bill Nye ??
“Half the Northeast now knows that Bill Nye is an idiot.”
I was going to say that if that was provably true, he would be asking for a pay rise.
It’s an interesting thought. Still, I think the league also checks the footballs for gross weight, – meaning if this scenario is indeed the case, would you see a difference in weight?
I chalk this one up as a process problem for the league which is easily solveable. Either the league inflates all footballs a certain way and therefore all footballs are subject to the same variables or each football is checked for proper inflation immediately before it’s put in play.
OR…. it’s a bunch of hooey and applesauce (to borrow a Dave Dameshek line) over absolutely nothing and we can move on with our lives.
The weight wouldn’t change as the same amount of mass is in the ball.
The idea is that the mass changes phases; from water vapour to liquid…
and so reduces the volume taken up by the water…
and so reduces the internal pressure.
But all the mass is still there.
A wet ball would weigh more. That water is absorbed on the outside.
Some of the reporters know so little science that they were reporting it was the actual weight of the ball that changed by two pounds. That really had me tearing out my hair. Imagine playing with a twelve and a half pound football! (They’d get back to the running-game in a hurry,)
It’s sad to say, but I’ve seen reporters display the same lack of even the most fundamental science-education, when they report about arctic sea ice.
It is a little like the old Art Linkletter show, “Kids Say The Darndest Things”, except, instead of children, it is reporters doing the talking.
“The ball shall be made up of an inflated (12 1/2 to 13 1/2 pounds) urethane bladder enclosed in a pebble grained, leather case (natural tan color) without corrugations of any kind.”
I suppose one could argue that the bladder itself has to weigh 13+-.5 pounds. Now that would be a game changer!
So, the Patriots filled 11 balls in the sauna to use on normal downs and one in the morning cold to use on kicking plays. No, no skirting of the rules at all – it is all within the letter of the law. It is however in the coach’s usual MO – gain any advantage you can.
That’s the MO of every coach on the planet for every team in every sport from the Olympics to Pop Warner, (excepting maybe chess..)
I believe you are wrong about the kicking ball used for kick-offs. I think those are supplied by the NFL officials. Punting is another matter, too hard and the punter will have a more difficult time catching it, (but so will whoever on the opposing team is catching it). Too soft and it isn’t going to go very far but less chance of the punter fumbling it which is really a much worse thing than a shorter punt.
Again – if each team is allowed to simply use whatever they wish then it would be fair.
Bingo
“…………too hard and the punter will have a more difficult time catching it, (but so will whoever on the opposing team is catching it). Too soft and it isn’t going to go very far but less chance of the punter fumbling it……..”.
We can argue all we want about how the balls used by the Patriots were not pressurized properly but there is a big benefit accruing from a soft Football and it matters more for the Recievers rather than the Quarterback’s, see http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/2015/01/25/patriots-fumble-nearly-impossible-rate/LCgrlUR9qgxDsIgcal9dUI/story.html.
Oh, and Ray? That so-called fumble study… Is a bunch of statistic mangling junk.
I haven’t read it closely, but some folks say this is a good takedown on the impossibly low fumble rate. Part of the answer is that both the Patriots and Colts have lo fumble rates because they pass a lot and throw the ball quickly before the defense can strip them.
http://regressing.deadspin.com/why-those-statistics-about-the-patriots-fumbles-are-mos-1681805710
Kicking balls are seperated from game balls and marked as kicking balls; not sure the difference though. (Why does AC/DC always play in my head when i read about this rediculous story).
Inconsistant tools make for a bad carpenter. If they wanted softer throwing balls, then they have practiced this move and practiced with similarly underinflated balls.
The difference, is that kicking balls are shipped directly from Wilson, to the referee. My understanding is that The teams are given something like 45 minutes to break them in before the game under direct supervision. No buffing or any of that stuff – just what the kicker can kind of do.
Decent post Alec. Avoiding the moisture issue is the reason race teams (and some tire shops) use nitrogen for tire inflating. The bigger molecule thing is really not significant and it is moisture and it’s ability to swing tire pressure that the race teams wish to avoid.
Pressurized Nitrogen (2 x 14 molecular weight) in 4x tires at 42-45 psig is lighter weight than compressed air at the same pressure. Water vapor pressure inside the tires? Well, even industrial N2 is always 100% dry. Fuel mileage testing isn’t done cheaply, but it IS taken very, very seriously. And
Not a lot of weight I grant. But the federal demands (er, extortion) reward every 1/2 pound removed from the car … One reason so few cars now have a full-sized spare, and why run-flat tires are encouraged by the car manufacturers. Less weight, less volume outside the interior. And, if the tires are filled with nitrogen, the consumer has to return to the $dealer$ to get the tires refilled with $nitrogen$ …
Does it really matter? No.
Besides, after the car model is tested and certrified by the federal bureacrats, it will NEVER be tested again for fuel mileage, and 80% of consumers are going to (1) refill the tires with air if (2) they refill at all and then (3) they will let the tire pressure go doqn to 20-25 psig, then refill. Maybe.
So to solve this the NFL just needs to adopt run flat footballs. Now what to do with all the stuff my wife keeps in the van?
Well, except from what I’ve heard, the ones used on kicking plays are not the ones provided by each team. Meaning none of the 12 Patriot balls would be used on kicking plays.
If so, wonder why all 12 balls were not the same pressure?
There is a rumored reason for the 12th ball being different, but I’d rather not junk up the thread…especially since most of the actual circumstances are just rumor at this point.
Maybe this whole sideshow was orchestrated by an industrial gas manufacturer’s marketing division eager to sell more cylinders of nitrogen (or small membrane N2 generators) to inflated ball sports (football, basketball, soccer, volley ball…) teams.
You dont actually need to gop to the extent of using nitrogen, compressed air is just fine as long
as your compressor has drier stage. Such compressors are readily available being used for recharging compressed air for scuba gear as well as industrial spray paint systems whereentrained liquids are a very bad thing.
This is clearly a case of shrinkage.
George Costanza will explain.
You mean “like a frightened turtle”?
I’m surprised nobody has questioned the accuracy of the pressure gauges used by the referees. What’s the margin of error on readings? Has anybody done a test, or does it depend on model output? If the measurements are analyzed, is there a trend? Are the football bladders defective and have minute leaks? C’mon, what kind of skeptics are we if we don’t question the data, or lack of it? — /sarc
Yeah, by imposing a pressure limit rule the NFL put themselves into the awkward position of potentially being challenged to certify that their gauge(s) are traceable to the National Bureau of Weights and Measures. So it’s another reason to axe the pressure rule altogether. Let each QB use whatever they wish when in possession. (As I understand it, the NFL still maintains control of the footballs used for kickoff so at least those would not be subject to the whim of either team.)
Maybe there was a manufacturing change to the valves that causes a leak. That kind of thing has happened in my former world.
The idea of the valve leak seems to of been pretty much ruled out by all of the balls holding their pressure through the second half.
None of this “controversy” would have happened if the NFL had any brains and had maintained the old rules that had the officials in charge of the game footballs. On top of that, once they allowed teams to start using their own footballs during possession why even have pressure limits? If the QB on each team can set the pressure to whatever he wants then how cannot that be fair to both sides? That and there would be one less rule for everyone to be concerned with.
“(They also wet the leather balls to simulate the rainy conditions of the game, surmising that this might allow stretching that would reduce air pressure in the ball, but this seems likely to be a minor factor.) “
“Minor” is in the eye of the beholder – the Head Smart Labs report stated:
The Lab also found that when the leather was wet, the ball dropped an additional 0.7 PSI.
So they saw a 1.1psi change from a 25F deg change plus another 0.7 from wet leather so the wet leather contributed to 39% of the pressure drop, a portion I wouldn’t describe as “minor”. On top of that, the leather of the ball that was intercepted had been ‘worked’ in the course of being used which could only have caused it to stretch even more.
https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/131228/d8f159cc-99db-47be-b8d1-1828d64dde17/HeadSmartLabs_The_Science_Behind_DeflateGate.pdf?id=54
OK, assume the quarterbacks’ preferences cancel out. But a softer ball is harder to fumble, so the team using a softer ball gains a disproportionate advantage. The Patriots have an off-the-chart low-fumble record, a researcher has discovered. See http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/397045/does-deflate-gate-explain-pats-super-low-fumble-rate-jack-fowler&sa=U&ei=LgrJVKaSCI7XoASv4oCQAQ&ved=0CBQQFjAA&sig2=UWvApaG9lyJWd2NijUMaAQ&usg=AFQjCNFxGPMYgeSe1fsI7yUmNaQTAdMAhw
Incidentally, since I think fumbles are a blot on the game, and encourage vicious tackling, I’d like to see the leagues–or at least the college leagues–allow a lower pressure limit.
I’m far from a natural sportsman (“unco” is the term that my brother used) but with a bit of practice and understanding of simple physics, I can stop a soccer ball dead that has been kicked over 20-30m using my foot. A good professional soccer player will trap one that has flown more than 50m. You do have worry about someone on over $1M a year needing an under-inflated ball to catch it (even with Neanderthal breathing down your neck).
If anyone is wondering, let the ball hit your foot with full force then remove your foot before it rebounds (move your foot back a few inches using our whole lower body). If you concentrate, it seems like ages for the ball to rebound even if fully pumped up. Your timing doesn’t need to be good with a flatter ball but if I can get it right even most of the geeks here can do it with a pumped up ball.
And the opposite with kicking. Just tap the ball hard but don’t over exert yourself so that you’re balanced and hitting the ball correctly. When you feel the pressure, use your torso to push your foot into the ball harder. The energy comes from the timing so that it s huge force over a short distance rather than a fast swinging foot. The latter is needed so that you start pushing when your foot is firmly embedded in the ball.
First, there is the practical matter of how much grip a human hand can apply to a ball. Soft is relative: a football at two PSI is clearly “flat”. A football at nine psi, is fairly solid. Eleven PSI is quite hard, and would not seem to fall into the descrtion of “soft”.. Anything above thirteen PSI is pretty difficult to distinguish with just hands.
Thanks for the pointer to HeadSmarts’ press release. I had only seen their video, which didn’t break out the effect of wetting the football. Very surprised to see it caused .7 psi of the observed 1.8 psi pressure drop. Don’t see how this can be from stretching of the leather when the drop in air pressure means there is less stretching force being applied. Leather really relaxes that much when wet? Maybe, I’m just surprised.
Or it could be that the balls had not fully equalized to the 50 degree temperature and wetting them caused rapid equalization. It is also possible that the 50 degree room they used had low relative humidity, causing the water on the ball to evaporate, causing evaporative cooling, making for a lower effective temperature.
This could have occurred on the field as well. Precipitation leaves dry air in the upper atmosphere. Not sure the effect on the ground. Would the wet balls have experienced evaporative cooling? Could be part of the story.
I would tend to agree – heat transfer from a gas to the ball and then out of the ball to the atmosphere is going to be relatively slow, adding water greatly accellerates this (even if the water doesn’t cool the ball, evaporation will)
In all of these things the devil really is in the details. If nothing else, you should have the very clear sense that the NFL’s QC process is laughable if the intent is to maintain a 12.5-13.5 psig pressure in the balls during game conditions. A ball stored and tested in an indoor environment at 13.0 lbs is almost certain to be out of spec once it has equilibrated to outdoor game conditions. Even assuming that the gauge used is accurate to +/- 0.1 psig, which I rather doubt.
Since compressors heat air as they work, it’s trivially easy to make them deliver hot air. Put it in a locker and run it for awhile, for example. Near the showers. Hot humid air in the balls. Check the pressure immediately before they cool off. Since the rule seems to state that the balls can only be inflated in the locker room, wouldn’t it be illegal to re-inflate them outside?
And since hard or soft seems to be a QB preference, who really cares?
Another chapter in the saga of men who run with balls…
Oh come come Ric, Surely you know it’s because of CAGW. You see the Patriots balls are inflated here in the Northeast which suffers the additional CO2 in our atmospheric upper and middle layers thanks to all that mixing from those coal-fired power plants in Indiana, which suffers from less CO2. Therefore balls inflated in Indiana are filled under atmospheric conditions that has somewhat less CO2 and thus under inherently cooler conditions than those inflated in the CO2 polluted Northeast! Now of course as well we all know CAGW doesn’t predict that every day will be warmer than the next, there is some degree of natural variation in daily temperature. We are talking long term trends here (like a week). That’s why we renormalized the naming of the phenomena from CAGW to Climate Change. So therefore you can still get a colder day than the average day say when the ball was originally inflated and viola! Climate Change induced deflation! I’m ready for my honorary PhD or I’ll settle for a cushy job as an ESPN Science Advisor! In my next post I’ll point out why counting tree rings can be an important way to gauge the longevity of your Christmas tree! 🙂 (Yes I’m THAT Dave in NH. You know me well, Ric Deimos or Bust!) As always your friend, Dave in NH!
Hi Dave! (See http://wermenh.com/deimos.html – The Martian Festival is held each vernal equinox. More about the events on Deimos — after this.)
Don’t give me any of this CAGW crap today. We were supposed to have the storm of the century (so far) yesterday and all I got was 8.5″ of fluff! All these claims of 20-30″? I sure haven’t seen it! (OTOH, I work in Nashua, so I will.) Look, I’m in a bad mood today, and seeing this Deflategate (10 yard penalty for overuse of -gate!) in WUWT is putting me in a worse mood and I’m gonna take it out on my co-workers!
OTOH, I suppose the sports reporters are thrilled to have something novel to talk about before the Superbowl….
Nah. Elevation of the cities. The elevation of Indianapolis is increasing because of glacier rebound due to the melting of the ice fields differently over Boston and over central Indiana.
Indianapolis’ ” mean elevation is 717 feet (219 m). Its highest point at 914 feet (279 m) above sea level is in the northwest corner 400 feet (120 m) south of the Boone County line and 400 feet (120 m) east of the Hendricks County line.” At 914 feet ASL, the differential pressure between Indianapolis balls (they inflated their footballs in a lower pressure atmosphere before flying to Boston two days before the game) and Boston’s footballs, inflated closer to sea level by a significant amount, means the measured differential pressure at sea level changed.
You should see what happens when Boston plays in Denver!
Parts of Boston are 2-3 feet higher than they were yesterday morning
!
Thanks Dave for that genuine frontier jibberish. I think you should be inline for a NBC,CBS or ABC nightly news anchor job.
Inflation Change is real and it’s happening now. And unless we reduce our Carbon emissions, by 2100 Football PSI will have dropped to 2.0004 PSI according to the models in the latest IPIC report, and our grandchildren will never know what a Hail Mary pass looks like.
+1.001
Occam’s Razor says the ball boy adjusted the pressure to where he was told. No need for complex explanations. Brady and Belichick should be incarcerated until Monday.
Easy.
The 12,5 psi pressure was calculated using an average of 68 models based on the physical properties of the constituent air.. The 10,5 psi was actual data
Open questions for further review …
1. Air temperature? When WAS it actually measured? Inside? OK – A humid warm atmosphere is easily created in a locker room shower area, if not an actual suana. But on the field? Down at the field itself? Or from the thermometer at the closest airport runway?
And the outside air itself? If it was measured at the stadium, where was the “stadium” air temperature measured? When? How many times that morning and afternoon was it measured? How close to the field was the supposed air temperature measured? Was the air temperature measured up in the press room in the wind? (The field in a confined “bowl” exposed to the sunlight can be 10-20 degrees F hotter than outside the bowl in the wind. This “field effect” temperature is significant when heat stroke for the players, bands, cheerleaders, and others down in the bowl of an outdoor stadium in the late summer.)
What SIDE of the field was the air temperature actually measured – WHEN it was measured each time?
Solar heating between inflation and pressure measurement can vary as the sun moves across the sky between warmup start (1 hour before game whistle) to halftime (1-1/2 hours later given commercial timeouts and playoff fru-fru and commotions.) 2.5 hours in the sun (one team) but shaded on the near (south field) sideline?
Or, shade one team’s football “trolley” .. Just a towel (or a WET TOWEL!) over the football trolley would cool the ball 10-20 degrees below atmosphere temperature, if the other team’s football trolley were in the sunshine for the same 2-1/2 hours with no towel and no evaporation losses.
No solar heating that day – 50F and raining.
OK, so solar energy is ruled out. 8<(
Any bench heaters blowing warm air on the "players" ?