How they did it...

JD Barleycorn's Avatar
I've been listening to all the pundits talk about Tom Brady's balls for the entire week and none of them can explain how it was done. I have the answer. This came from hearing that a team a few years ago was heating their balls before a kick off to get more pressure and more distance. Everyone has it backwards. They did not release pressure from the balls in the bathroom or anywhere else. The balls were heated before the measurement by officials which increased the pressure to regulation. One ball was held back (at the correct pressure and cool) as the one to offer the official. The other balls cooled after the pressure check and returned to their lower than official pressure without anyone touching them further.

Any physics major want to do the math?
Makes sense.....

Tires on your car do the same thing.



Edit,,,, Soft balls had no effect on the outcome of that game... That was an ass whoopin'
zeejoe's Avatar
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-...P731/203060297

Just an example- have one in my garage- better, smaller & quieter stuff out there.
Battery powered, fast., will do anything from balls to pickup tires- punch in the psi number you want and it shuts off automatically when it gets there.
Makes sense.....

Tires on your car do the same thing. Originally Posted by lookn4boobies
Not that much. Not nearly that much.

Assuming nominal outdoor temperature at 40 degrees F, that's 500 degrees R (Rankine). That means that 50 degrees F temperature change will give you 10% pressure change, or about 3 psi on a Corvette tire. Chasing tire pressures on my '99 C5 used to drive me crazy, until I ran the Universal Gas Law calculations and realized what was going on. I used to joke about fighting a "never ending battle for truth, justice, and the proper tire pressure".

To dump 2 pounds out of a 12.5 psi football, you need 80 degrees F temperature change. No freaking way the official is not going to notice a football 80 degrees above room temperature, and no freaking way the test room will be at 100 F and the playing field at 20 F.