Replies

All he did was show that his mother and sister could throw low pressure balls farther. Why? Deflated balls are smaller diameter and these two women could get a better grip.

How does that show Brady cheated? His hands are quite a bit larger, no doubt, and low pressure would give him a minimal advantage, if any.

Also, a lot of science fair judges are not even science teachers. They judge cuteness. Science fairs in schools use whoever they can get - English teacher? No problem!

I saw a totally bogus "experiment" win a state contest. I also saw a well done experiment panned by a "judge" who knew nothing about the science behind the kid's experiment.

Why? Deflated balls are smaller diameter and these two women could get a better grip.

Not within the range of pressure they are talking about, but if you get REALLY low, it has some effect - mostly bad. A quarterbacks grip between about 11-15 PSI is really more a function of the surface characteristics. The NFL is only quibbling about 0.2 PSI, which falls within the variance from wetness. The Wells report itself agrees with the critics of it that the first 1.2 PSI would apply to every football outdoors from temperature, and at least another 0.2 PSI (here it varies by which page of the Wells report you looks at, and whether you are looking at data or the contradictory graphs which they clearly botched) to 0.6 PSI.

Other experiments show the effects of water on the football, and the change in relative humidity (RH) between outdoors and the 20% RH (NFL figure) where they measured the footballs can have up to about 0.95 PSI.