World Trade Center - Response to Eric
Eric –
I am aware of this issue at BYU. The professor’s work was extensively reviewed by the Physics faculty and found technically lacking. He thought he had evidence for explosives at the
Regarding the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC), I have the 2005 reports from NIST (the US National Institute of Standards and Technology) and can put them on CDs for you. They consist of a final report and 42 companion reports totaling several thousand pages making for some great bedtime reading. I know two of the NIST project managers and authors for these WTC reports who specialize in structural response and modeling fires in buildings - we hired them to do testing for us during our
I have included 2wo photos of WTC beams I took at NIST.
One winter a few years ago, I read a number of books written by historians who looked in detail at the events leading up to and during the Dec 7, 1941 attack by
I am sure we have many incompetent, even bungling individuals in our current federal government but few if any conspirators in mass murder. I could be very wrong but I sleep better at night this way.
Bill (Dad)
4 comments:
Some good things to know.
That's why I asked.
We discussed this guy recently in class and I opted for bringing in some real information as we were having a conversation based on here say. I think this will do.
One can not give a simple explanation to the rapid collapse of the WTC towers since the engineering involved is not simple. I will try but I refer you to the NIST reports for a more complete understanding.
Structural steels are wonderful materials and are the only reason we can build very high stable structures with reasonable costs. Note that the WTC is not a pyramid - a shape for building that high with stone. When structural steels get very hot or experience impact loads, the stress/strain behavior is very different.
One designs steel buildings with considerable ductility - basically the ability to bend a long ways without breaking. Glass has little ductility, warm plastic has lots. When structural steel heats up, the overall strength is reduced and if hot enough the weight of the top floors can not be held by the steel columns and connecting beams at the location of the high heat zones causing a rapid failure. The extreme weight of these higher stories collapses, creating very high impact loads when they hit the lower stories. The steel in the lower stories, while still cold, does not have the necessary ductility response to impact loads, connections break, weld give, lots of bad things begin to happen rapidly.
I have done considerable structural testing recently and can attest to a human characteristic I was not previously aware of - we have difficulty thinking in a different time reference than what we live in. In explosive events, everything is over in a few microseconds. In a structural collapse, all the events leading to the collapse are over rapidly, perhaps in a few milliseconds. Our brains do not function in these time frames so we have issues understanding the mechanisms. If you measure the fall rate of the WTC towers, it will be somewhat less than free fall rate due to particle impact, air displacement, and friction.
Look at the NIST reports for further understanding. These guys did a great job.
As far as a gov conspiracy - consider the number of people involved. It would take many people running wires all over one of these buildings for many days just to place the charges. Someone would talk don't you think? In general, our leaders have not been murderers.
Thats all folks, Bill
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