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Thursday 29 January 2015

Deflated Balls - an explanation!

The answer to the problem of deflated balls has been staring people of intelligence right in the face since day one. It all boils down to those laws of physics that we learned way back in High school. Remember Boyle's Law, Gay-Lussac's Law and Charles' Law - all those laws relating to pressure, absolute temperature and volume. Just apply the Kinetic Theory to the Patriots' balls.

"Particles are in constant random motion, and they collide with one another and with the walls of the container in which they are enclosed (the football). Each particle has an inherent kinetic energy that is totally dependent upon temperature only."

If the footballs were inflated inside at normal room temperature, and were taken outside into temperatures that, during the game in question, were below freezing, then the pressure of the air inside the balls would have to drop, simply because the air would get colder, the kinetic energy of the air inside the footballs would reduce, and there would be a lower pressure than when they were first inflated. QED.



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