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Title: NYT: Grad student’s experiments show that weather may be culprit in Patriots’ Deflategate
Source:
HotAir
URL Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/ ... lprit-in-patriots-deflategate/
Published: Jan 30, 2015
Author: Allahpundit
Post Date: 2015-02-02 08:48:36 by Tooconservative
Keywords: Deflategate
Views: 4881
Comments: 17
Brady’s not going to the chair, though. And this still leaves one obvious question unanswered. 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. [Thomas] 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). In the experiment, the deflation of the footballs was close to the larger, correctly calculated value. When Healy moistened the balls to mimic the effects of the rainy weather that day, the pressure dropped even further, close to the deflation of 2 pounds per square inch that the N.F.L. is believed to have found. Inflate a ball at a warmer temperature and then introduce it to a cooler environment and it’ll deflate (a little) naturally. We already knew that. What we didn’t know was how much it would deflate, apparently enough to drop the pressure below the lower threshold allowed by the NFL. So, mystery solved: The Pats are innocent! As for that Patriots locker-room attendant who brought the game balls for both teams with him into the bathroom for 90 seconds before kickoff, maybe it was a simple matter of nature calling. Maybe he went into the referees’ locker room to take the footballs out for the start of the game and then thought “I should take a whiz now or else I won’t make it to halftime.” So he made a pit stop en route to the field. No one believes he could manually deflate 12 balls in a minute and a half; he probably could have run the Pats’ footballs under the faucet quickly in that time to encourage more rapid deflation, but that assumes the guy has the same handle (or even a better handle) on how gas behaves than many physicists. What’s he doing working as a ball boy when he could be teaching at MIT? So he’s probably innocent. But that brings us to the unanswered question: How come the Colts’ footballs didn’t also naturally deflate in the cold weather? How come the Baltimore Ravens’ footballs didn’t deflate a week earlier in their game at New England? The Ravens were also suspicious of deflation by the Pats, to the point where they felt obliged to tip Indianapolis off to it. The weather is a constant for both sides so it can’t explain a variation in the equipment. The variation has to have come before the game. One innocent possibility is that, for whatever reason, the Pats inflate their balls in a room with a higher temperature than their opponents do. Maybe the Colts and Ravens inflated their footballs on the field, or in a cold room, such that the temperature at game time was less of a drop than it was for the Patriots’ footballs. But … why would they do that? Why wouldn’t the equipment manager choose someplace comfortable like a warm room to inflate the balls and run through the pre-game selection process with the QB? For that matter, why aren’t deflated footballs a problem for every team that plays outdoors in the winter? The Ravens, in fact, play in a division of four cold-weather teams, all of whom have open-air stadiums; they should be running into this problem on rainy or snowy game days every week starting in November. And yet, both they and the Colts noticed something unusual about the Patriots’ equipment. That shouldn’t happen if this is a purely natural phenomenon. But oh well. Doesn’t matter anymore: If there was ever even a small chance that Belichick(!) or Brady(!!) would be suspended for the Super Bowl, obviously it’s gone now. The league isn’t going to sandbag the Pats 48 hours before kickoff by stripping them of their coach or their star QB when the team’s been practicing all week with them. If Goodell was going to do something draconian (giggle), he would have done it a week ago at the latest. Poster Comment: Tempting to put this one in Science. And as a result of this ridiculous scandal over football inflation, science does advance an iota. So that is something of a happy ending to a truly stupid NFL non-scandal. And if the Pats were engaging in shady inflation tactics, they made sure they had just enough plausible deniability to get away with it.
Reading this, all I can think of is Frank Drebin: “Hey, the missing evidence in the Kelner case! My God, he really was innocent.” “He went to the chair two years ago, Frank.”
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 13.
#1. To: All, GrandIsland (#0)
Obviously, a secret Patriots fan sent in to dazzle the rubes with Science! : )
I conclude foul play is the only reasonable explanation since only one teams balls were deflated
Yeah, I liked that little backstory too. But the Patriots would say, "You'll never prove it. And we deny it." Even so, it is hard to argue they weren't the better team on the field in these last two games.
I disagree. I feel Seattle was the better team and lost only by a single bad play call. Mr. Brady, who ended up with MVP, threw two picks.
But isn't at least one otherwise professional NFL team defeated every week during the season for that same exact reason? Teams apparently lose every week "except for that one bad play". I don't see how you get very far when that play has been so widely criticized as a crucial mistake. You can't just say, "Well, except for that one boneheaded play which lost them the game, they woulda won...we wuz robbed!". No one will take it very seriously. Not even a non-NFLer like me can be convinced.
I'm convinced that Seattle is the better all around team. Better D Better running game Better special teams. Stronger and tougher.
Well, well, well. Fresh on Drudge:
#14. To: TooConservative (#13)
College: Stanford
I stated they were the better all around team... I never claimed they had class. I'm actually surprised that pooping the ball out in the end zone isn't a 15 yard calibration penalty.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest[Thomas] 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
#7. To: TooConservative (#1)
#8. To: GrandIsland (#7)
I conclude foul play is the only reasonable explanation since only one teams balls were deflated
#9. To: TooConservative (#8)
Even so, it is hard to argue they weren't the better team on the field in these last two games.
#10. To: GrandIsland (#9)
...lost only by a single bad play call.
#11. To: TooConservative (#10)
#13. To: GrandIsland (#11)
SUPER TOILET BOWL: SEAHAWKS RECEIVER MIMICKED 'POOPING' OUT BALL!
NBC CUT AWAY...
NFL CONSIDERS FINE...
Replies to Comment # 13.
#16. To: TooConservative (#13)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 13.
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