SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
While the New England Patriots have absorbed a beating in the press, with many scientists concluding that only the surreptitious hiss of air being released from their footballs could explain the loss of pressure making them easier to handle, James Glanz reports at the NYT that the first detailed, experimental data has concluded that most or all of the deflation could be explained by environmental effects.
[The NFL is investigating whether the New England Patriots intentionally deflated footballs during their victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's rain-soaked AFC Championship Game.]
“This analysis looks solid to me,” says Max Tegmark, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who reviewed the paper. “To me, their measurements mean that there’s no evidence of foul play.” 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. But applying the equation to real situations can be surprisingly deceptive. When a gauge indicates that the ball contains 12.5 p.s.i. — the minimum allowed by the N.F.L. — the actual pressure is more than twice that amount because the surrounding pressure of the atmosphere must be considered. This roughly doubles how much a dip in temperature can lower the pressure. “I stand corrected,” says Tegman, “It’s pretty funny that the ideal gas law is making headlines."
Thomas Healy 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. Healy, who is from the Boston area, conceded that he would be rooting for the Patriots — whether he gets tickets or not — but says engineers who were not Patriots fans had helped with the experiments. Healy says his interest was just in the science. “It’s bringing science to a really public light, especially when everybody is getting interested in the Super Bowl."
Non-USA readers may wish to refer to our earlier story about the Super Bowl which explains some of the terminology and background on the game.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:24AM
The combination of coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady is one of the best tandems in American football today. Their success together is greater than 21 (of 32) teams total. [twitter.com] So fans of losing teams love to hate the Patriots on that fact alone. For Colts fans, who had just watched their team vanquished the feared Broncos the week prior, the loss to the Patriots stung. Nevermind that the Patriots scored more points after the balls were properly inflated than they had with the under-pressure balls.
Belichick is a disciplined, cunning coach and will find and seemingly use any rule loophole to get ahead. That's what good coaches do. Had he not been previously fined for a prior videotaping scandal [wikipedia.org] and had controversial calls go his way [wikipedia.org] it would not have drawn nearly as much interest. Even in their prior win, the legal play selection was called a clear deception by the losing coach. [boston.com]
Even the coach of the only perfect season, Don Shula, has called Bill Beli-cheat. So the clearest thing is the strong butthurt about the Patriots' success.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 01 2015, @05:27AM
And don't forget just how long this has probably been going on [slate.com].
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Squidious on Sunday February 01 2015, @03:12PM
For us Eagles fans the butt-hurt will never die. In Super Bowl XXXIX Belichick dialed up a screen pass every time Johnson called for a corner blitz. Numerous blitz packages were the key to the Eagles defense. After the game and they had Jeremiah Trotter on the radio saying it was unreal, "It was like they knew what we were doing on defense". This was a couple years before they got caught with the videotaping. It was against the official rules, thus it was no "loophole". That being said, I would love to have either Brady or Belichick on my team but without the BS.
The terrorists have won, game, set, match. They've scared the people into electing authoritarian regimes.