Michael Naughton — the chair of Boston College’s physics department — has gone on the record to state that, “it’s not possible for weather NOT to have played a role,” in Ball-ghazi.
Say you inflate the ball to 12.5 PSI — the NFL minimum — in a room at 70 degrees, and then used the ball outside where it was 50 degrees. That 12.5 PSI would eventually become 11.5 PSI. If you inflate the ball to 12.5 PSI in an even warmer room where it was, say, 80 degrees, and then played outdoors at 40 degrees, that 12.5 PSI would become 10.5 PSI — a drop of two PSIs.
http://nesn.com/2015/01/boston-college-professor-weather-had-to-play-role-in-deflategate/
I guess the real story should be that the Colts were using balls that defied physics, haha. Same thing with that 12th Patriots ball.
I haven't followed this story overly closely, but where and when did they do the measurement? Was it on the field or was it in the locker room?
Also, you'd think the guys who were writing these articles would go to the trouble to figure out what they're talking about. It's high school level stuff.
I don't think that anyone will ever know the full story about what happened. That doesn't really start with the Pats though. How was the initial inspection done? Do the people really measure the pressure in each ball? It's possible, but not definite. In soccer (for instance) the referees frequently inspect the game ball by picking it up and squeezing it to see if it's inflated properly.
Were the footballs checked with gauges before the game? That's the assumption, but I wouldn't bet the bank on it. It's more likely that the balls were slightly underinflated to start with than they were later deflated.