UA Science

You are here

Expert Witness - Deflategate with Steward PhD alumnus Charles Liu

In the NY Times' extensive discussion of the New England Patriots and Deflategate, one of the newest articles has extensive quotations from Steward PhD alumnus Charles Liu, now on the faculty at the College of Staten Island and an Associate at Hayden Planetarium. The article can be found HERE.

A couple of pithy quotations from the article follow:

"... “Just because you’re not a scientist does not mean you can’t know what to do,” Liu said. “It’s kind of like saying, Well, I see somebody about to burn down your house, but since I’m not a firefighter, I don’t know whether I should stop them or not.”

...“If you let out 2 p.s.i. from the ball, it is as if you removed 400 pounds of force pushing outward from the football,” Liu said. “If you let out 1.5 p.s.i. from the ball, it’s as if you removed 300 pounds of force pushing outward from the football.”"

"Liu mentioned Muhammad Wilkerson, a 6-foot-4-inch, 315-pound defensive lineman for the Jets, to illustrate the point. If Wilkerson were to stand on a ball, the leather would bulge out on the ball’s sides, growing taut, and would be much harder to grip. Take Wilkerson off the ball, and it would become easier to grip. “That is what letting 1.5 or 2 p.s.i. out of the ball means,” Liu said. (I tried the experiment in the office with a basketball, with an editor gripping the sides of the ball. He agreed that it was easier to hold on to once my 220 pounds had hopped off.)..."

Finally, the Boston Globe published a Boston-based view of the same HERE.

Bill Nye the Science Guy weighed in HERE.

 

For the public
For Public

Public events include our Monday Night Lecture Series, world-reknowned Astronomy Camp and Mt Lemmon Sky Center.

For Students

A good place to start if you want to become an undergrad major or grad student, or need to find our schedule of classes.

 

For Scientists
For Scientists

Find telescopes and instruments, telescope time applications, staff and mountain contacts, and faculty and staff scientific interests.