NENGFAN, This is going to turn out to be a GREAT learning experience for your kids.
What they will learn, what you should be teaching your kids, and what the parents of those other kids should be teaching theirs is ...
1) Don't spread gossip &/or rumors.
2) Listen to experts, not to amateurs.
3) Don't jump to conclusions before you have all the facts.
4) If you DO spread rumors, how are you going to feel when those rumors turn out to be false
5) It is unkind & unjust to spread rumors, and if you keep doing it, I'm going to take a belt to your backside.
6) OFTEN, the smartest thing to do is to intentionally, willfully NOT come to a conclusion, because you know that all the info is not yet available. It is MUCH smarter to say "I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion yet" than it is to jump to the wrong conclusion.
All of the above is true, regardless of how the report from the NFL turns out.
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Now, here is how it is GOING TO turn out, because it has to:
1. If they have any integrity, the NFL will publish the FACT that nobody touched those balls. It is 100% provable. (See below.)
2. Someone should take a belt to the backsides of all those clueless, ignorant reporters, talking heads & ex-NFL football players who assert - SOLELY THRU THEIR OWN IGNORANCE - that Brady & Belichick are cheaters & liars.. NOT ONE of them has the slightest clue what they are talking about, and the only reason that they are writing it is because other clueless morons are saying it.
3. So, tell your kids to tell their friends, "why don't we wait to see what the investigation concludes, instead of jumping to baseless conclusions."
4. The most important lesson: "The POPULAR answer is not necessarily the CORRECT answer."
5. It's your option (I'd recommend against it) to tell them that the vasty majority of the population are scientific & technical morons.
They will be proven right & wise beyond their years.
Good luck,
Tom
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In the meanwhile, print out the section below & have them take it to a physics teacher at their (or a local) high school. Ask the teacher if everything printed here is exactly correct. Ask the teacher, "Doesn't this mean that, if the balls were found to be about 2 psi low (11 psi vs 13 psi), this shows that the temperature alone was responsible for 1.5 psi drop & Tom Brady was responsible for the other 0.5 psi drop (because he likes 12.5 psi instead of 13.0 psi)?"
1) PV = nRT => P/T = nR/V
2) For nR/V = constant, P1/T1 = P2/T2 => P2 = P1 * (T2/T1)
3) For P1 = 12.5 psi, T1 = 75°F, T2 = 50°F
(but these equations REQUIRE absolute temperatures (°R) & pressures (psia).
NOT gauge pressure (psig) or °F.)
Converting to absolute temp & pressure:
P2 = (12.5+14.7) psia * (50+460)°R / (75+460°R) = 25.9 psia
Converting back to gauge pressure:
P2 = 25.9 psia - 14.7 psi) = 11.2 psig.
Experimental measurements show a pressure of 11.0 psi at 50°F.
Two likely corrections to the theoretical value are:
1) when inflating balls, adiabatic compression heats injected air to >100°F.
2) condensation of water vapor in the air inside the ball, when the balls cool, removes some water vapor from gases (N2, O2 & H2O) contributing to pressure.
