Steve Jones and his physics analysis of 9/11...

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Chriszuma

EDIT: By the way, I just started listening to this video, and already he's made some errors. He claims that the building couldn't have possibly fallen due to fire. It didn't. It fell due to fire AND a gigantic plane smashing into it at full throttle.

But I don't know, they sort of debunk the whole thing about the combination of the plane and the fire bringing it down. The towers were by design made to withstand a 707 flying into it, which was the biggest plane at the time. The analogy they use in the presentation is actually good one. It's like puncturing a screen window with a pencil - it puts a hole in it but it doesn't destroy the entire screen. And I think his argument is well presented on how the fire couldn't have done it. Never had a building made from these materials been brought down from a fire alone. I also was surprised to find out that even if the fire was burning 650 degrees C, which would reduce the steel's strength by half, it still could have supported 2 - 3 times the stress that was being placed on the building. At least, that's what his presentation said. Interesting to see different viewpoints and theories.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

The towers were by design made to withstand a 707 flying into it, which was the biggest plane at the time.

True, but according to an interview with the original architectural team that I saw on TV, they only considered the impact load (of some tons of aluminim hitting the structure), and had failed to consider the fire effects from the fuel load. The terrorists used planes will relatively high fuel loads, and ~24000 pounds of fuel can make for a big fire.

Don