Deflategate

2023-11-20 09:44:31

Deflategate


 

The deflated ball controversy makes an interesting segue into negative number line understanding.  A particular digital psi football gauge reads 0 when the ball is at a proper NFL inflation of 13 psi.  Footballs inflated under 13 psi produce negative psi readings and students have to decide the range of possible inflation levels and which reading is less inflated.

Students work with negative numbers, inequalities, and graph on the number line, all in this controversial context.  Finally, students use proportional reasoning to determine if an air temperature difference could have accounted for the deflated footballs (the math & physics has been simplified down a bit, we went with many sources boiled the math down to, you can see all the math here).  Older students can dabble in writing compound inequalities and absolute value inequalities.

Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 9.29.23 PM

Note: If you are interested in opening with a video about "Deflategate" there are plenty of articles and video news reports online.  Just do a Google search.

For Adventurer members we have an editable Word docx and solutions.

Activity Solutions & Supporting Materials
Share this:
Comments (1)
Admin - 2024-02-11 12:44:36
Ss loved @yummymath deflated football assignment. I learned some things too! #talkingpoints #SuperBowlXLIX — Lori Barr (@LbarrBarr) January 31, 2015
    Display 1 - 1 Of total 1
    Holiday shipping
    Now that the shopping season has begun, it...
    Kilauea's lava flow
    [caption id="attachment_15749" align="aligncenter"...
    Hexadecimal coloring
    Probably most of us have heard of and even u...
    Chocolate heart-shaped raspberry cake
    For Valentine's Day, bake a cake! Stude...
    Peeps
    How many Peeps are sold at Easter time e...
    A&W's bigger burger
     A&W offered a...
    Bowling Deals
    Is there a general way to figure how much it...
    Holiday Candy Sales
    In this updated activity...
    How did I graph this heart?
    In this activity, students...
    Louisiana
    We recently watched the approach of Hurrican...