On Saturday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick gave a surreal press conference where he explained how the Patriots footballs could have deflated without any illegal action on his team's part.
His explanation wasn't the clearest thing I'd ever heard, and I said so in a post covering the press conference. In response to my post, Kirk Hackett, a retired physicist who worked for the Air Force, emailed me to explain exactly how the Patriots' balls could have deflated even when the Colts' balls did not.
It basically comes down to this: The Patriots do something to prepare the balls. Their preparation increases the PSI by 1 pound. Over time that PSI would naturally deflate by a pound once the preparation is done. But the Patriots also hand the ball to the referees, who artificially let out 1 pound. So, then the ball naturally loses about one more PSI, making it underinflated.
Make of that what you will!
Hackett emailed me his credentials after I asked for them. He says, "As far as I go, you might be able to google me. I am retired and used to work at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Directed Energy. At one time, I was President of the Directed Energy Professional Society. As far as academic credentials go, my Bachelors with a physics major is from Dartmouth (1977), and my PhD in Physics is from MIT (1983). I could dig my diplomas out of the closet, but that is a bit of a hassle."
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6 comments:
But Bill Nye the science guy (LOL) said Belichick was lying.
Really, who gives a Rat's Ass....
Unemployment at record highs and you let Obama Media side track you?
I can understand the under inflated balls resulting in the success of one or two plays but with the shellacking they gave the Colts.....? Let's face it, the Colt's don't even believe it caused their loss. Anything to distract the public from other newsworthy issues is what I see!
The referees attifically let out 1 lb? How do you artfically let out 1 lb? what's artifical about it you either let it or you didn't.
After reading that post headline the first thing that came to my mind was:
By becoming a flaming liberal.
"Much ado about nothing!" I would suspect the referee's test guage, which could be wrong or leaking.
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