[sten]

keep in mind, if you inflated the balls to 13 psi in a very warm room (90F ?)... then brought them outside to 20F.. they would deflate a bit

[Fresh Wind]

keep in mind, if you inflated the balls to 13 psi in a very warm room (90F ?)... then brought them outside to 20F.. they would deflate a bit

Exactly. That's what tires do, same would apply to footballs.

[Joe 6-pack]

Ok...then why was the 12th, properly inflated ball not affected?

[CAluvdubya]

keep in mind, if you inflated the balls to 13 psi in a very warm room (90F ?)... then brought them outside to 20F.. they would deflate a bit

I wondered about that. Makes sense.

[nuconvert]

“keep in mind, if you inflated the balls to 13 psi in a very warm room (90F ?)... then brought them outside to 20F.. they would deflate a bit.”

Lol. The only way that could happen in the middle of winter, is if cheating Belichick or one of his cheating staff deliberately heated the room to 90F so that they would deflate outdoors.

[stremba]

Geek that I am, I did the actual math for your scenario. If the footballs were inflated to 13 psi at 90F, and then cooled to 20F, the pressure in the balls would be 11.3 psi. That’s not too far different from what they were measured to be.

[kidd]

Using the ideal gas law, and assuming the volume of the footballs stay the same, then

if the balls were inflated to 12.5 psi in an 80 degree room, then were brought outside to 20 degree conditions, then the ball pressure would be reduced to 11.1 psi.

P1=12.5 psi
T1=80 F = 299.8 K
T2=20 F = 266.5 K

P1/T1 = P2/T2
P2 = P1 (T2/T1) = 12.5 psi x (266.5 K / 299.8 K) = 11.1 psi

kidd’s conclusion: The cold air alone would account for 1.4 psi of the 2 psi underinflation. I doubt that pressure gages were used with enough accuracy to make a case that the balls were purposely underinflated.

I would guess that the Colts balls were equally deflated.

Under further review, there is not enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. The Colts are charged with a lost game.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

They should fill them with nitrogen to get less pressure fluctuation when inflating them indoors (warm) and then taking them outside (cold)...but we are expecting sports fans to comprehend Boyles law, or Avagadro’s or Charles’ laws. That stuff doesn’t matter because the Patriots won by a huge margin and the poor Colts got beat badly...THATS what is important to sports fans.

[Hoffer Rand]

Temperature was in the low 50s/high 40s during the game.