Fourth-grade Heron School student investigates ‘Deflategate’ — and has a verdict

--- Published on February 20th 2015 ---
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Remember “Deflategate,” the national controversy over accusations that the New England Patriots deflated footballs in the AFC championship game?

Nine-year-old Sienna, a Heron School fourth-grader, has investigated the matter and reached a verdict.

Sienna tackled the issue – pun intended – as a science project, testing whether Mother Nature might be to blame. Put simply, she set out to determine whether heat and cold can alter football air pressure, naturally, with no intent to cheat.

In the interest of full disclosure, Sienna is a sports fan, many of her relatives are from New England, and she was rooting for the Patriots in the AFC Championship that sparked the controversy. But science is science, fact is fact, right?

“I thought maybe there was science in it, and that maybe the temperature affected it,” Sienna said of the spotlight on underinflated footballs after the Patriots beat the Colts, 45-7, in the qualifier for this year’s Super Bowl.

A national weather service, AccuWeather, reported that temperatures for the AFC Championship game were in the low 50s at kickoff and fell to the upper 40s by the end of the game, which was played in brisk, rainy conditions in Foxborough, Mass.  Another factor to consider is that the footballs may have been inflated indoors – with warm, climate-controlled temperatures – and then brought outside to more severe climactic conditions, AccuWeather noted.

Sienna started her research by inflating three footballs to equal pounds per square inch, known as “psi.” She kept one ball at room temperature, placed another in the refrigerator, and placed the other in an oven heated to 100 degrees.

Results? The envelope please … Sienna’s cold football lost 2 psi, her oven-cooked football gained 1 psi, and the football that remained at room temperature did not change its psi at all, she said.

Her conclusion? “I don’t think they cheated,” Sienna said of the Patriots Thursday night during Heron School’s Science Fair, featuring “Deflategate” and dozens of other student projects.

“It was probably the temperatures that deflated the balls, not them,” Sienna said.