The American Association of Physics teachers had an interesting analysis. The gist of the analysis consisted of the temperature differences. In a couple weeks we will be studying gas laws in physics and I see some physics problems coming up (or maybe even a test question).
To quote the AAPT website.
In this section, I summarize a simple analysis that suggests that the under-inflation might be largely explained by the temperature difference between when the balls’ pressure was first verified by the Referee and when the balls were re-measured at half time. I assume that the air inside the football is reasonably described by the ideal gas law under the conditions used for the football preparation and during the game. Let me denote the initial pressure and temperature at which the footballs were prepared as Pi and Ti, respectively. Similarly, I denote the “final” pressure and temperature (during the game) as Pf and Tf. As almost every chemistry and physics student knows, the ideal gas law tells us that
Pf = Pi (Tf / Ti), (1)
under the assumption that the volume of the football and the number of molecules inside the football bladder remain the same, conditions which are at least approximately correct for the game situation. Knowing the initial pressure, the initial temperature, and the final temperature, it is easy to calculate the final pressure. I note that if the final temperature (at half time) is lower than the initial temperature (when the balls’ pressure was first verified), the final pressure will be lower than the initial pressure. At the lower temperature, the air molecules are moving less rapidly (on average) and hence exert a lower pressure on the football bladder in which the air is trapped.
Go to the AAPT website to read the entire analysis.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson has an interesting (wrong) tweet. Read about his wrong analysis.
Of course, the most famous “science” response if from Bill Nye. You have to remember, that Nye is from Seattle. So his opinion…is a bit biased. But you can watch it here. If you look at the video, Nye actually never does a measurement. He just goes on a tirade about Global Warming.
