Trying to Explain Deflate-gate Scientifically

With Deflate-gate being the story heading into the big game we take a scientific approach to try and explain what's happening.

It wouldn't be a New England Patriots win without some controversy. After the Patriots routed the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the AFC Championship game reports came out that the Patriots had been using footballs that appeared to be deflated. Since then all local sports reporters have been on the ball, no pun intended, trying to keep us fans updated with the latest breaking news

Of course being a Patriots fan the last thing on my mind is that Belichick or the organization had a hand in these events. With this being said, I would like to take a scientific approach to see if we can debunk Deflate-gate.

The Pressure-Temperature law, also referred to as Amonton's Law of Pressure-Temperature states that if the mass and volume of a gas, in this case the air inside the footballs, are constant the result is that the gas' pressure is directly related to the gas' temperature. To further explain, if the initial pressure of the ball is measured at a certain temperature and is then brought to a lower temperature the pressure of the ball would also decrease. So what does this mean in term of the game?

Well, the official pressure of a game day football is between 12.5 and 13.5 psi (pounds per square inch). Let's cut it down the middle and say these were originally weighed at 13 psi. These were measured at a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit inside the stadium. The game time temperature was 49 degrees.  According to the law at hand, the decrease in temperature will have an equal effect on the pressure of the ball. Running this information through the law's equation shows that the ball's new pressure would be 12.3 psi, below league regulations. This is also not adding in the rainy weather which also has an effect that will cause pressure to decrease.

Now call me a biased Patriots fan, which I can admit to being, but I feel this could have a larger effect on Deflate-gate than expected. Until more information comes out I am more than ok with leaving this investigation in sciences hands. But this could just be the freshman in college version of me who thought he could be a Physics major.