11 October 2006
sympathetic collapse
These columns appear to have survived the collapse of one the WTC towers.
We can probably leave aside the claim that they "vaporised".
But they did survive the intitial collapse - which you might expect given that 40 or more massive steel columns made up the centre of each of the towers and occupied a full 1/3 cross sectional area of each building.
If we accept the official theory then the massive weight of the floors above the impact zones pile-drived the remaining floors into the ground.
So if they did survive initially then why the delayed collapse of this steel framework?
It would suggest a weakness of the steel at the base which is not consistent with the official explanation. Even here, we would not expect all of this structure to simply fold into the ground.
The pictures display something of an impossible outcome.
There are two things wrong:
(1) If the standing structure in the first frame simply fell over sideways then we would not expect to see only a vertical plume of dust or smoke. The structure appears to have fallen straight down.
(2) The standing structure is quite tall. If it did fall straight down then this could only occur if it had multiple structural failures along its length causing it to collapse in smaller pieces.
Falling over sideways is not in evidence. And why should steel that is structurally sound suddenly turn into broken pieces?
# posted by kenj @ 20:48 
