| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Spaulding Greystoke" |
| Date: |
01 Dec 2005 06:48:04 PM |
| Object: |
BYU Physics Professor vs Some Guy On Usenet |
"missingkids@gmail.com" <missingkids@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1133463654.875503.47420@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
lab rat said "Then change the subject line"
I don't know. Hijacking this insane one is kinda fun. The article that
started the thread is so ridiculous, that it's not even worth
commenting further on. Those that think the article is the truth and
are arguing for it just make me laugh anyway.
Maybe I should just post some jokes to go along with the article. That
would be on topic.
So you can disprove the physics professor's paper?
No.
The views in this paper are the sole responsibility of the author (not
Brigham Young University).
DRAFT 2.5
Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?
By Steven E. Jones
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84604
ABSTRACT
In writing this paper, I call for a serious investigation of the
hypothesis that WTC 7 and the Twin Towers were brought down, not just by
damage and fires, but through the use of pre-positioned explosives. I
consider the official FEMA, NIST, and 9-11 Commission reports that fires
plus damage alone caused complete collapses of all three buildings. And
I present evidence for the explosive-demolition hypothesis, which is
suggested by the available data, testable and falsifiable, and yet has
not been analyzed in any of the reports funded by the US government.
Let’s start with the collapse of the 47-story WTC 7, which was never hit
by a jet. I ask you to take a minute to look at the collapse of this
building as a basis for discussion.
WTC 7: 47 - Story, steel-frame building..
WTC 7 on afternoon of 9-11-01. WTC 7 is the tall
sky-scraper in the back-ground, right. Seen from WTC 1 area.
WTC 7 collapsed completely, onto its own footprint
Now that you have seen the still photographs, it is important to the
discussion which follows for you to observe video clips of the collapse
of this building, so go to:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html Click on the three
photos at the top of this web-site page in order to see the videos of the
collapse of WTC 7. It helps to have sound.
Then consider a video close-up of the same building (SW corner) as its
demise begins:
http://st12.startlogic.com/
~xenonpup/Flashes/squibs_along_southwest_corner.htm
What did you observe?
Symmetry: did the building collapse straight down (nearly symmetrically)
– or did it topple over?
Speed: How fast did the building fall? (Students and I measure less
than 6.6 seconds; time it!)
Smoke/debris-jets: Did you observe puffs of smoke/debris coming out of
the building? Please note for yourself the sequence and fast timing of
observed puffs or “squibs.” Note that reference to web pages is used in
this paper due largely to the importance of viewing motion picture clips,
thus enhancing consideration of the laws of motion and physics generally.
High-quality photographs showing details of the collapses of WTC 7 and
the WTC Towers can be found in books (Hufschmid, 2002; Paul and Hoffman,
2004), magazines (Hoffman, 2005; Baker, 2005) and at
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/photos/collapses.html.
My reasons for advancing the explosive-demolition hypothesis while
challenging the “official” fire-caused collapse hypothesis are these:
1. As you observed, WTC 7 collapsed rapidly and symmetrically -- even
though fires were randomly scattered in the building. WTC 7 fell about
seven hours after the Towers collapsed, even though no major persistent
fires were visible. There were twenty-four huge steel support columns
inside WTC 7 as well as huge trusses, arranged asymmetrically, along with
approximately 57 perimeter columns. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5.) A
symmetrical collapse, as observed, evidently requires the simultaneous
“pulling” of most or all of the support columns. The Second Law of
Thermodynamics implies that the likelihood of complete and symmetrical
collapse due to random fires as in the “official” theory is small, since
asymmetrical failure is so much more likely. On the other hand, a major
goal of controlled demolition using explosives is the complete and
symmetrical collapse of buildings.
Concluding remarks in the FEMA report on the WTC 7 collapse lend support
to my arguments:
The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to
collapse [“official theory”] remain unknown at this time. Although the
total diesel fuel on the premises contained massive potential energy, the
best hypothesis [fire/damage-caused collapse] has only a low probability
of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed
to resolve this issue. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5; emphasis added.)
That is precisely my point: further investigation and analyses are
needed, including consideration of the controlled-demolition hypothesis
which is neglected in all of the government reports (FEMA, NIST and 9-11
Commission reports). Note that the 9-11 Commission report does not even
mention the collapse of WTC 7 on 9-11-01. (Commission, 2004) This is a
striking omission of data highly relevant to the question of what really
happened on 9-11.
2. A New York Times article entitled “Engineers are baffled over the
collapse of 7 WTC; Steel members have been partly evaporated,” provides
relevant data.
Experts said no building like it [WTC7], a modern, steel-reinforced high-
rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire. (Glanz, 2001;
emphasis added.)
That’s correct – no such steel-beam building had ever before (or since)
completely collapsed due to fires! However, such complete, symmetrical
collapses in steel-frame buildings have indeed occurred many times before
-- all of them due to pre-positioned explosives in a procedure called
“implosion” or controlled demolition. What a surprise, then, for such an
occurrence in downtown Manhattan— three skyscrapers completely collapsed
on the same day, September 11, 2001.
Engineers have been trying to figure out exactly what happened and
whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the
country… Most of the other buildings in the [area] stood despite
suffering damage of all kinds, including fire... ‘Fire and the structural
damage …would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to
have been partly evaporated’, Dr. [Jonathan] Barnett said. (Glanz, 2001;
emphasis added.)
The observed “partly evaporated” steel members is particularly upsetting
to the official theory, since fires involving paper, office materials,
even diesel fuel, cannot generate temperatures anywhere near the 5,000+
oF needed to “evaporate” steel. However, thermite, RDX and other
commonly-used explosives can readily slice through steel (thus cutting
the support columns simultaneously in an explosive demolition) and reach
the required temperatures. (It is possible that some other chemical
reactions were involved which might proceed at lesser temperatures.)
This mystery needs to be explored – but is not mentioned in the
“official” 9-11 Commission or NIST reports.
3. There are several published observations of molten metal in the
basements of all three buildings, WTC 1, 2 (“Twin Towers”) and 7. For
example, Dr. Keith Eaton toured Ground Zero and stated in The Structural
Engineer,
‘They showed us many fascinating slides’ [Eaton] continued, ‘ranging from
molten metal which was still red hot weeks after the event, to 4-inch
thick steel plates sheared and bent in the disaster’. (Structural
Engineer, September 3, 2002, p. 6; emphasis added.)
The observation of molten metal at Ground Zero was emphasized publicly by
Leslie Robertson, the structural engineer responsible for the design of
the World Trade Center Towers, who reported that “As of 21 days after the
attack, the fires were still burning and molten steel was still running.”
(Williams, 2001, p. 3; emphasis added.)
Sarah Atlas was part of New Jersey's Task Force One Urban Search and
Rescue and was one of the first on the scene at Ground Zero with her
canine partner Anna. She reported in Penn Arts and Sciences, summer
2002,
‘Nobody's going to be alive.' Fires burned and molten steel flowed in
the pile of ruins still settling beneath her feet. (Penn, 2002; emphasis
added.)
Dr. Allison Geyh was one of a team of public health investigators from
Johns Hopkins who visited the WTC site after 9-11. She reported in the
Late Fall 2001 issue of Magazine of Johns Hopkins Public Health, "In some
pockets now being uncovered they are finding molten steel.” Further
information on the subject is available at
http://globalresearch.ca.myforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=11663.
Thus, molten metal was repeatedly observed and formally reported in the
rubble piles of the WTC Towers and WTC 7, metal that looked like molten
steel. However, scientific analysis, using for example X-ray
fluorescence, would be needed to ascertain the actual composition of the
molten metal.
I maintain that these published observations are consistent with the use
of the high-temperature thermite reaction, used to cut or demolish steel.
Thermite is a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum powder. The end
products of the thermite reaction are aluminum oxide and molten iron. So
the thermite reaction generates molten iron directly, and is hot enough
to melt and even evaporate steel which it contacts while reacting. Use
of sulfur in conjunction with the thermite should accelerate the
destructive effect on steel, and sulfidation of structural steel was
indeed observed in some of the few recovered members from the WTC rubble.
(See http://www.911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/metallurgy/index.html.)
On the other hand, falling buildings (absent explosives) have
insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of
metal. The government reports admit that the building fires were
insufficient to melt steel beams -- then where did the molten metal come
from? Metals expert Dr. Frank Gayle (working with NIST) stated:
Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very
intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it
did not, the steel did not melt. (Field, 2005; emphasis added.)
None of the official reports tackles this mystery. Yet this is evidently
a significant clue to what caused the Towers and WTC 7 to collapse. So I
would very much like to see an analysis of the elemental composition of
the metal, and could do this myself if a small sample were made available
according to scientific courtesy. Any reader who knows of chemical
analyses or even photographs of this molten metal found below the rubble
piles of WTC 1, 2 and 7 is invited to speak out and contact the author.
This could lead to an experiment crucis.
4. Horizontal puffs of smoke and debris are observed emerging from WTC-7
on upper floors, in regular sequence, just as the building starts to
collapse. (The reader may wish to view the close-up video clip again.)
The upper floors have not moved relative to one another yet, as one can
verify from the videos. In addition, the timing between the puffs is
less than 0.2 seconds so air-expulsion due to collapsing floors is
excluded. Free-fall time for a floor to fall down to the next floor is
significantly longer than 0.2 seconds: the equation for free fall, y = ½
gt2, yields a little over 0.6 seconds, as this is near the initiation of
the collapse.
However, the presence of such “squibs” proceeding up the side of the
building is common when pre-positioned explosives are used, as can be
observed at http://www.implosionworld.com/cinema.html. The same site
shows that rapid timing between explosive squibs is also common. (It is
instructive to view several of the implosion videos at this web site.)
Thus, squibs as observed during the collapse of WTC 7 going up the side
of the building in rapid sequence provide additional significant evidence
for the use of pre-placed explosives. Regarding this highly-secure
building, a NY Times article entitled “Secretive C.I.A. Site in New York
was Destroyed on Sept. 11,” provides an intriguing puzzle piece:
The C.I.A.'s undercover New York station was in the 47-story building at
7 World Trade Center… All of the agency's employees at the site were
safely evacuated… The intelligence agency's employees were able to watch
from their office windows while the twin towers burned just before they
evacuated their own building. (Risen, 2001)
5. The official FEMA 9-11 report admits a striking anomaly regarding the
North Tower collapse:
Review of videotape recordings of the collapse taken from various angles
indicates that the transmission tower on top of the structure began to
move downward and laterally slightly before movement was evident at the
exterior wall. This suggests that collapse began with one or more
failures in the central core area of the building. (FEMA, 2002, chapter
2; emphasis added.)
North Tower showing antenna (top) at beginning of
collapse.
Yes, we can see for ourselves that the antenna drops first from videos of
the North Tower collapse. (See
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/videos/wtc1_close_frames.html;
also http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/collapse.htm.) A NY Times
article also notes this behavior:
The building stood for more than an hour and a half. Videos of the north
tower's collapse appear to show that its television antenna began to drop
a fraction of a second before the rest of the building. The observations
suggest that the building's steel core somehow gave way first… (Glanz and
Lipton, 2002; emphasis added)
But how? What caused the 47 enormous steel core columns of this building
(which supported the antenna) to give way nearly simultaneously? That
mystery was raised by the FEMA report (FEMA, 2002, chapter 2) and the New
York Times (Glanz and Lipton, 2002) yet not solved in any official report
(FEMA, 2002; Commission, 2004; NIST, 2005). The odd behavior was not
even mentioned in the final NIST report (NIST, 2005), but some of us have
not forgotten.
Could random fires burning office materials in the building account for a
near-simultaneous “pulling” of these core supports? Certainly such an
event would have exceedingly low probability. Again, use of pre-
positioned explosives to cut the core columns first (standard demolition
practice) provides a simple yet elegant explanation for the observation,
satisfying the “Occam’s razor” test (Jones, 2005).
6. Multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were heard and reported by
numerous observers in and near the WTC Towers, consistent with explosive
demolition. Firemen and others described flashes and explosions in upper
floors near where the plane entered, and in lower floors of WTC 2 just
prior to its collapse, far below the region where the plane had struck
the tower (Dwyer, 2005). For instance, at the start of the collapse of
the South Tower a Fox News anchor reported:
There is an explosion at the base of the building… white smoke from the
bottom… something happened at the base of the building! Then another
explosion.” (De Grand Pre, 2002, emphasis added.)
Firefighter Edward Cachia independently reported:
[We] thought there was like an internal detonation, explosives, because
it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came
down…It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane
hit. (Dwyer, 2005; emphasis added.)
And assistant fire commissioner Stephen Gregory provides additional
insights:
When I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down,
before No. 2 came down, ..I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation
with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned
me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and
I agreed with him because I thought -- at that time I didn't know what it
was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing,
things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like
the building came down.
Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was?
A. No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they
demolish a building, how when they blow up a building, when it falls
down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic to him,
but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy, but I just wanted to
ask you because you were standing right next to me… He said did you see
any flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no,
I saw them, too. (Dwyer, 2005, Assistant Commissioner Stephen Gregory
FDNY WCT2 File No. 91 10008; emphasis added.)
It is highly unlikely that jet fuel was present to generate such
explosions especially on lower floors, and long after the planes hit the
buildings. Dr. Shyam Sunder, Lead Investigator for NIST stated: "The jet
fuel probably burned out in less than 10 minutes.” (Field, 2005) On the
other hand, pre-positioned explosives provide a plausible and simple
explanation for the observations, satisfying Occam’s razor (Jones, 2005).
Thus, it cannot be said that “no evidence” can be found for the use of
explosives. This serious matter needs to be treated as a plausible
scientific hypothesis and thoroughly investigated.
7. The horizontal ejection of steel beams for hundreds of feet and the
pulverization of concrete to flour-like powder, observed clearly in the
collapses of the WTC towers, provides further evidence for the use of
explosives – as well-explained in
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/towers/index.html. (See also, Griffin,
2004, chapter 2.)
North Tower during top-down collapse.
Notice mysterious squibs far below pulverization
region.
Unlike WTC7, the twin towers appear to have been exploded “top-down”
rather than proceeding from the bottom – which is unusual for controlled
demolition but clearly possible, depending on the order in which
explosives are detonated. That is, explosives may have been placed on
higher floors of the towers and exploded via radio signals so as to have
early explosions near the region where the plane entered the tower.
Certainly this hypothesis ought to be seriously considered in an
independent investigation using all available data.
8. I totally agree with the urgent yet reasoned assessment of expert
fire-protection engineers, as boldly editorialized in the journal Fire
Engineering:
Respected members of the fire protection engineering community are
beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating [result] has emerged: The
structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel
in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers.
Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official
investigation" blessed by FEMA… is a half-baked farce that may already
have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to
put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the
marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of
evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members-
described by one close source as a "tourist trip"-no one's checking the
evidence for anything.
Some citizens are taking to the streets to protest the investigation
sellout. Sally Regenhard, for one, wants to know why and how the
building fell as it did upon her unfortunate son Christian, an FDNY
probationary firefighter. And so do we.
Clearly, there are burning questions that need answers. Based on the
incident's magnitude alone, a full-throttle, fully resourced, forensic
investigation is imperative. More important, from a moral standpoint,
[are considerations] for the… present and future generations… (Manning,
2002; emphasis added).
9. The occurrence of nearly symmetrical, straight-down and complete
collapses of the WTC 7 and the Towers is particularly upsetting to the
“official” theory that random fires plus damage caused all these
collapses. Even with explosives, achieving such results requires a great
deal of pre-planning and expertise.
The main challenge in bringing a building down is controlling which way
it falls. Ideally, a blasting crew will be able to tumble the building
over on one side, into a parking lot or other open area. This sort of
blast is the easiest to execute [favored by the Law of Increasing
Entropy]. Tipping a building over is something like felling a tree. To
topple the building to the north, the blasters detonate explosives on the
north side of the building first…
Sometimes, though, a building is surrounded by structures that must be
preserved. In this case, the blasters proceed with a true implosion,
demolishing the building so that it collapses straight down into its own
footprint (the total area at the base of the building). This feat
requires such skill that only a handful of demolition companies in the
world will attempt it. [Again, consistent with the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.]
Blasters approach each project a little differently... [A good] option is
to detonate the columns at the center of the building before the other
columns so that the building's sides fall inward. (Harris, 2000; emphasis
added.)
Careful observation of the collapse of WTC 7 (video clips above)
demonstrates a downward “kink” near the center of the building first,
suggesting “pulling” of the support columns, then the building’s sides
pull inward such that the building “collapses straight down into its own
footprint” (Harris, 2000). FEMA admitted that WTC 7 collapsed onto a
well-confined footprint:
The collapse of WTC 7 had a small debris field as the facade was pulled
downward, suggesting an internal failure and implosion… The average
debris field radius was approximately 70 feet. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5.)
Evidently we agree that this was a beautifully done implosion in the
collapse of WTC 7, and yet:
This feat requires such skill that only a handful of demolition companies
in the world will attempt it. (Harris, 2000; emphasis added.)
Consider: Why would terrorists undertake straight-down collapses of WTC7
and the Towers, when “toppling-over” falls would require much less work
and would do much more damage in downtown Manhattan? And where would
they obtain the necessary skills and access to the buildings for a
symmetrical implosion anyway? These questions suggest the need for
further investigation.
One of the people a thorough investigation should question would be
demolition expert Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition, Inc.
Speaking of the way the WTC buildings came down, he said in an interview:
“If I were to bring the towers down, I would put explosives in the
basement to get the weight of the building to help collapse the
structure.” (Bollyn, 2002; emphasis added.)
Just right – “explosives in the basement” agrees with eyewitness reports
of explosions down low in the buildings (point 6 above). Also, this
would be the way to effectively sever the support columns, consistent
with both the initial drop of the communication tower (WTC Tower 1) and
the “kink” in the middle of WTC 7 as its collapse began. Yes, and as
president of Controlled Demolition, Inc., Mr. Loizeaux would know the
“handful of demolition companies in the world [that] will attempt” a
symmetrical controlled demolition. (Harris, 2000) His company is
certainly one of these and was hired to do the rapid clean-up work
following the building collapses.
If you still haven’t looked at the rapid symmetrical collapse of WTC7 for
yourself, why not do so now? Watch for the initial “kink” or drop in the
middle, and for the “squibs” blowing in sequence up the side of the
building, and notice the symmetrical, straight-down collapse -- all so
common in controlled demolitions. See for yourself at:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html. A great deal of
further information is presented from a serious scientific point-of-view
at this site (http://911research.wtc7.net/).
10. I presented my objections to the “official” theory at a seminar at
BYU on September 22, 2005, to about sixty people. I also showed evidence
and scientific arguments for the explosive demolition theory. In
attendance were faculty from Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Civil
Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Geology, and Mathematics
– and perhaps other departments as I did not recognize all of the people
present. A local university and college were represented (BYU and Utah
Valley State College).
The discussion was vigorous and lasted nearly two hours. It ended only
when a university class needed the room. After presenting the material
summarized here, including actually looking at and discussing the
collapses of WTC 7 and the Towers, all except one attendee agreed (by
hand-vote) that further investigation of the WTC collapses was called
for. The next day, the dissenting professor said he had further thought
about it and now agreed that more investigation was needed. He joined
the others in hoping that the 6,899 photographs and 6,977 segments of
video footage held by NIST plus others held by the FBI would be released
for independent scrutiny; photos largely from private photographers
(NIST, 2005, p. 81). We call for the release of these data to a cross-
disciplinary, preferably international team of scientists and engineers.
11. One attendee to the BYU Seminar on 9-11 anomalies suggested I review
the paper by Bazant and Zhou, which I did. Quoting:
The 110-story towers of the World Trade Center were designed to withstand
as a whole the forces caused by a horizontal impact of a large commercial
aircraft. So why did a total collapse occur? (Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p.
2.)
Correct – jet collisions did not cause collapses – we can agree on that.
MIT’s Thomas Eager also concurs “because the number of columns lost on
the initial impact was not large and the loads were shifted to remaining
columns in this highly redundant structure” (Eager and Musso, 2001).
We continue with Bazant & Zhou:
The conflagration, caused by the aircraft fuel spilled into the
structure, causes the steel of the columns to be exposed to sustained
temperatures apparently exceeding 800oC… (Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p. 2.)
But here we note from the recent NIST report that: “The initial jet fuel
fires themselves lasted at most a few minutes” and office material fires
would burn out within about 20 minutes in a given location. (NIST, 2005;
p. 179, emphasis added.) Certainly jet fuel burning was not enough to
raise steel to sustained temperatures above 800oC. But we continue:
Once more than half of the columns in the critical floor.. suffer
buckling (stage 3), the weight of the upper part of the structure above
this floor can no longer be supported, and so the upper part starts
falling down onto the lower part below…”(Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p. 2.)
Bazant & Zhou do not explain how “more than half of the columns in the
critical floor [can] suffer buckling” at the same time to precipitate the
complete and nearly symmetrical collapse observed. There were 47 huge
steel core columns in each Tower, and 24 such support columns in WTC 7
(NIST 2005; NISTb, 2005).
The WTC towers were solidly constructed with 47 steel core
columns and 240 perimeter steel beams. 287 steel-columns total.
Many doubt that random fires/damage could cause them to
collapse straight down (official theory), and suspect
explosives.
Steel-frame: Huge core (left), enormous Heat Sink. Notice workers
standing on floor pan which is
firmly attached to the interconnected
core columns.
They do NOT explain how steel-column temperatures above 800oC were
achieved near-simultaneously due to burning office materials. NIST notes
that office materials in an area burn for about 15-20 minutes, then are
consumed away (NIST, 2005, pp. 117, 179). This is evidently not long
enough to raise steel column temperatures above 800oC as required in the
Bazant & Zhou model, given the enormous heat sinks of the structures.
And to have three buildings completely collapse due to this unlikely
mechanism on the same day strains credulity. Moreover, the Final NIST
report on the Towers admits:
Of the more than 170 areas examined on 16 perimeter column panels, only
three columns had evidence that the steel reached temperatures above
250ºC… Only two core column specimens had sufficient paint remaining to
make such an analysis, and their temperatures did not reach 250 ºC. ...
Using metallographic analysis, NIST determined that there was no evidence
that any of the samples had reached temperatures above 600 ºC. (NIST,
2005, pp. 176-177; emphasis added.)
As for WTC 7, Bazant & Zhou say little but mention in a separate
“addendum” that burning natural gas might have been a source of the
needed heat (Bazant and Zhou, March 2002, p. 370). The FEMA report
(FEMA, 2002) addresses this issue:
Early news reports had indicated that a high pressure, 24-inch gas main
was located in the vicinity of the building [WTC 7]; however, this proved
not to be true." (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5; emphasis added)
12. I have read through the hundreds of pages of the Final NIST report
on the collapses of the WTC Towers. (NIST, 2005) It is interesting to
note that NIST “decoupled” and delayed their final report on WTC 7, which
is overdue as of this writing (NIST, 2005; NISTb, 2005) I agree with
some of the NIST report; for example:
Both WTC 1 and WTC 2 were stable after the aircraft impact, standing for
102 min and 56 min, respectively. The global analyses with structural
impact damage showed that both towers had considerable reserve capacity.
This was confirmed by analysis of the post-impact vibration of WTC 2…
where the damaged tower oscillated at a period nearly equal to the first
mode period calculated for the undamaged structure. (NIST, 2005, p. 144;
emphasis added.)
At any given location, the duration of [air, not steel] temperatures near
1,000oC was about 15 min to 20 min. The rest of the time, the calculated
temperatures were near 500oC or below.” (NIST, 2005, p. 127, emphasis
added.)
NIST contracted with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. to conduct tests to
obtain information on the fire endurance of trusses like those in the WTC
towers… All four test specimens sustained the maximum design load for
approximately 2 hours without collapsing.” (NIST, 2005, p. 140, emphasis
added.)
However, I along with others challenge NIST’s collapse theory. NIST
maintains that all three building collapses were fire-initiated despite
the observations above, particularly the fact that fire endurance tests
with actual models did not result in collapse. In a paper by fire-
engineering experts in the UK, we find:
The basis of NIST’s collapse theory is… column behaviour in fire...
However, we believe that a considerable difference in downward displace
between the [47] core and [240] perimeter columns, much greater than the
300 mm proposed, is required for the collapse theory to hold true… [Our]
lower reliance on passive fire protection is in contrast to the NIST work
where the amount of fire protection on the truss elements is believed to
be a significant factor in defining the time to collapse… The [proposed
effect] is swamped by thermal expansion … Thermal expansion and the
response of the whole frame to this effect has NOT been described as yet
[by NIST]. (Lane and Lamont, 2005.)
I agree with these pointed objections, particularly that the “response of
the whole frame” of each building should be considered, especially heat
transport to the whole frame from localized fires, and that the “core
columns cannot pull the exterior columns in via the floor.” (Lane and
Lamont, 2005)
The computerized models of the Towers in the NIST study, which
incorporate many features of the buildings and the fires on 9-11-01, are
less than convincing. The Final report states:
The Investigation Team then defined three cases for each building by
combining the middle, less severe, and more severe values of the
influential variables. Upon a preliminary examination of the middle
cases, it became clear that the towers would likely remain standing. The
less severe cases were discarded after the aircraft impact results were
compared to observed events. The middle cases (which became Case A for
WTC 1 and Case C for WTC 2) were discarded after the structural response
analysis of major subsystems were compared to observed events. (NIST,
2005, p. 142; emphasis added.)
The NIST report makes for interesting reading. The less severe cases
based on empirical data were discarded because they did not result in
building collapse. But ‘we must save the hypothesis,’ so more severe
cases were tried and the simulations tweaked, as we read in the NIST
report:
The more severe case (which became Case B for WTC 1 and Case D for WTC 2)
was used for the global analysis of each tower. Complete sets of
simulations were then performed for Cases B and D. To the extent that the
simulations deviated from the photographic evidence or eyewitness reports
[e.g., complete collapse occurred], the investigators adjusted the input,
but only within the range of physical reality. Thus, for instance,…the
pulling forces on the perimeter columns by the sagging floors were
adjusted... (NIST, 2005, p. 142; emphasis added.)
The primary role of the floors in the collapse of the towers was to
provide inward pull forces that induced inward bowing of perimeter
columns. (NIST, 2005, p. 180; emphasis added.)
How fun to tweak the model like that, until the building collapses --
until one gets the desired result. But the end result of such tweaked
computer hypotheticals is not compelling, sorry gentlemen. Notice that
the “the pulling forces on the perimeter columns by the sagging floors
were adjusted” (NIST, 2005, p. 142; emphasis added) to get the perimeter
columns to yield sufficiently – one suspects these were “adjusted” by
hand quite a bit -- even though the UK experts complained that “the core
columns cannot pull the exterior [i.e., perimeter] columns in via the
floor.” (Lane and Lamont, 2005; emphasis added.)
I also agree with Kevin Ryan’s objections regarding the NIST study.
Kevin Ryan, at the time a manager at Underwriters Laboratories (UL),
makes a point of the non-collapse of actual WTC-based models in his
letter to Frank Gayle of NIST:
As I'm sure you know, the company I work for certified the steel
components used in the construction of the WTC buildings. In requesting
information from both our CEO and Fire Protection business manager last
year… they suggested we all be patient and understand that UL was working
with your team… I'm aware of UL's attempts to help, including performing
tests on models of the floor assemblies. But the results of these tests…
indicate that the buildings should have easily withstood the thermal
stress caused by… burning [jet fuel, paper, etc.]. (Ryan, 2004)
That models of WTC trusses at Underwriter Laboratories (UL) subjected to
fires did NOT fail is also admitted in the final NIST report:
NIST contracted with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. to conduct tests to
obtain information on the fire endurance of trusses like those in the WTC
towers…. All four test specimens sustained the maximum design load for
approximately 2 hours without collapsing… The Investigation Team was
cautious about using these results directly in the formulation of
collapse hypotheses. In addition to the scaling issues raised by the test
results, the fires in the towers on September 11, and the resulting
exposure of the floor systems, were substantially different from the
conditions in the test furnaces. Nonetheless, the [empirical test]
results established that this type of assembly was capable of sustaining
a large gravity load, without collapsing, for a substantial period of
time relative to the duration of the fires in any given location on
September 11. (NIST, 2005, p. 141; emphasis added.)
So how does the NIST team justify the WTC collapses, when actual models
fail to collapse and there are zero examples of fire-caused high-rise
collapses? Easy, NIST concocted computer-generated hypotheticals for
very “severe” cases, called cases B and D (NIST, 2005, pp. 124-138). Of
course, the details are rather hidden to us. And they omit consideration
of the complete, rapid and symmetrical nature of the collapses.
Indeed, NIST makes the startling admission in a footnote on page 80 of
their Final Report:
The focus of the Investigation was on the sequence of events from the
instant of aircraft impact to the initiation of collapse for each tower.
For brevity in this report, this sequence is referred to as the "probable
collapse sequence," although it does not actually include the structural
behavior of the tower after the conditions for collapse initiation were
reached...(NIST, 2005, p. 80, fn. 12; emphasis added.)
Again, on page 142, NIST admits that their computer simulation only
proceeds until the building is “poised for collapse”, thus ignoring any
data from that time on.
The results were a simulation of the structural deterioration of each
tower from the time of aircraft impact to the time at which the building
became unstable, i.e., was poised for collapse. ...(NIST, 2005, p. 142;
emphasis added.)
What about the subsequent complete, rapid and symmetrical collapse of the
buildings? What about the observed squibs? What about the antenna
dropping first in the North Tower? What about the molten metal observed
in the basement areas in large pools in both Towers and WTC 7 as well?
Never mind all that: NIST did not discuss at all any data after the
buildings were “poised for collapse.” Well, some of us want to look at
ALL the data, without computer simulations that are “adjusted,” perhaps
to make them fit the desired outcome.
13. Kevin Ryan, the whistleblower from Underwriters Laboratories, did
his own statistical analysis in a recent letter regarding the NIST
report, arguing that probabilities of collapse-initiation needed to be
calculated (Ryan, 2005). NIST nowhere provides such a likelihood
analysis for their non-explosive collapse model. Ryan’s analysis is that
the probability that fires and damage (the “official theory”) could cause
the Towers complete collapse is less than one in a trillion, and the
probability is much less still when the complete collapse of WTC7 is
included (Ryan, 2005). Nor does NIST (or FEMA or the 9-11 Commission)
even mention the molten metals found in the basements of all three
buildings (WTC 1, 2 and 7).
So where does that leave us? I strongly agree with Kevin Ryan,
This [“official”] story just does not add up…. That fact should be of
great concern to all Americans…. There is no question that the events of
9/11 are the emotional driving force behind the War on Terror. And the
issue of the WTC collapse is at the crux of the story of 9/11. (Ryan,
2004; emphasis added.)
14. The NIST team fairly admits that their report “does not actually
include the structural behavior of the tower after the conditions for
collapse initiation were reached.” (NIST, 2005, p. 80, fn. 1; emphasis
added.) Quite a confession, since much of the external evidence for
explosive demolition typically comes after collapse initiation, as seen
in cases of acknowledged controlled demolition. (Harris, 2000.)
The rapid fall of the Towers and WTC7 has been analyzed by several
engineers/scientists
(http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/proofs/speed.html; Griffin,
2004, chapter 2). The roof of WTC 7 (students and I are observing the
southwest corner) falls to earth in less than 6.6 seconds, while an
object dropped from the roof would hit the ground in 6.0 seconds. This
follows from t = (2H/g)1/2. Likewise, the Towers fall very rapidly to
the ground, with the upper part falling nearly as rapidly as ejected
debris which provide free-fall references
(http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/proofs/speed.html; Griffin,
2004, chapter 2). Where is the delay that must be expected due to
conservation of momentum – one of the foundational Laws of Physics? That
is, as upper-falling floors strike lower floors – and intact steel
support columns – the fall must be significantly impeded by the impacted
mass. If the central support columns remained standing, then the
effective resistive mass would be less, but this is not the case –
somehow the enormous support columns failed/disintegrated along with the
falling floor pans.
How do the upper floors fall so quickly, then, and still conserve
momentum in the collapsing buildings? The contradiction is ignored by
FEMA, NIST and 9-11 Commission reports where conservation of momentum and
the fall times were not analyzed. The paradox is easily resolved by the
explosive demolition hypothesis, whereby explosives quickly remove lower-
floor material including steel support columns and allow near free-fall-
speed collapses (Harris, 2000).
And these explosives also readily account for the turning of the falling
Towers to fine dust as the collapse ensues. Rather than a piling up with
shattering of concrete as we might expect from non-explosive-caused
progressive collapse (“official theory”), we find that most of the Towers
material (concrete, carpet, steel, etc.) is converted to flour-like
powder WHILE the buildings are falling. The Towers’ collapses are not a
typical implosions, but quite possibly series of “shock-and-awe”
explosions – at least the evidence points strongly in this direction.
The hypothesis ought to be explored further.
Those who wish to preserve as inviolate fundamental physical laws may
wish to take a closer look. Consider the collapse of the South WTC Tower
on 9-11:
http://www.911research.com/wtc/evidence/videos/docs/south_tower_collapse.
mpeg
Top ~ 34 floors of South Tower topple over.
What happens to the block and its angular momentum?
We observe that approximately 34 upper floors begin to rotate as a block,
to the south and east. They begin to topple over, as favored by the
Second Law of Thermodynamics. The torque due to gravity on this block is
enormous, as is its angular momentum. But then – and this I’m still
puzzling over – this block turned mostly to powder in mid-air! How can we
understand this strange behavior, without explosives? Remarkable,
amazing – and demanding scrutiny since the US government-funded reports
failed to analyze this phenomenon. But, of course, the Final NIST 9-11
report “does not actually include the structural behavior of the tower
after the conditions for collapse initiation were reached.” (NIST, 2005,
p. 80, fn. 1; emphasis added.)
Indeed, if we seek the truth of the matter, we must NOT ignore the data
to be observed during the actual collapses of the towers, as the NIST
team admits they did. But why did they do such a non-scientific
procedure as to ignore highly-relevant data? The business smacks of
political constraints on what was supposed to be an “open and thorough”
investigation. (See Mooney, 2005.)
So I with others call for an open and thorough investigation. I hope the
international community will rise to the challenge. The field is wide
open for considering the alternative hypothesis outlined here, due to its
neglect by studies funded by the US government.
15. Finally, and by way of review, we consider the variations and
inconsistencies in the fire/damaged-caused collapse models with time.
The earliest model, promoted by various media sources, was that the fires
in the towers were sufficiently hot to actually melt the steel in the
buildings, thus causing their collapse. For example, Chris Wise in a BBC
piece spouted out false notions with great gusto
“It was the fire that killed the buildings. There’s nothing on earth
that could survive those temperatures with that amount of fuel burning…
The columns would have melted, the floors would have melted and
eventually they would have collapsed one on top of the other.” (quoted
in Paul and Hoffman, 2004, p. 25)
But as we have seen from later serious studies, the jet fuel burned out
within minutes following impact. Recall the statement of expert Dr.
Gayle refuting the notion that fires in the WTC buildings were
sufficiently hot to melt the steel supports:
Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very
intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it
did not, the steel did not melt. (Field, 2005; emphasis added)
Then we have the model of Bazant and Zhou, which requires the majority
of the 47 huge steel columns on a floor of each Tower to reach sustained
temperatures of 800oC in order to buckle (not melt) – at the same time.
But as we’ve seen, such temperatures are very difficult to reach while
burning office materials, in these connected steel structures where the
heat is wicked away by heat transport. (Paul and Hoffman, 2004, p. 26)
And then to reach the 800oC at the same time, well, no, this scenario is
far too improbable.
So that approach was abandoned by FEMA in the next effort (FEMA, 2002).
The FEMA team largely adopted the theory of Dr. Thomas Eager (Eager and
Musso, 2001), which was also presented in the NOVA presentation “Why the
Towers Fell” (NOVA, 2002). Instead of having the columns fail
simultaneously, FEMA has floor pans in the Towers warp due to fires, and
the floor connections to the vertical beams break, and these floor pans
then fall down onto the floor pans below, initiating “progressive
collapse” or pancaking of one floor pan on another. Very simple. But
not so fast – what happens to the enormous core columns to which the
floors were firmly attached? Why don’t these remain standing like a
spindle with the floor pans falling down around them, since the
connections are presumed to have broken away? This interconnected steel
core is founded on bedrock (Manhattan schist). FEMA does not totally
ignore the core:
As the floors collapsed, this left tall freestanding portions of the
exterior wall and possibly central core columns. As the unsupported
height of these freestanding exterior wall elements increased [no mention
of the huge central core anymore!], they buckled at the bolted column
splice connections and also collapsed.” (FEMA. 2002; emphasis added)
This approach finally fails to account for the observed collapse of the
47 interconnected core columns which are massive and designed to bear the
weight of the buildings, and it has the striking weakness of requiring
the connections of the floor pans to the vertical columns to break, both
at the core and at the perimeter columns, more or less simultaneously.
That didn’t work out, so NIST goes back to the drawing board.
They require that the connections of the floor pans to vertical columns
do NOT fail (contrary to FEMA’s model), but rather that the floor pans
“pull” with enormous force, sufficient to cause the perimeter columns to
significantly pull in, leading to final failure (contrary to objections
of ARUP Fire experts, discussed above). Also, NIST constructs a computer
model -- but realistic cases do not actually lead to building collapse.
So they “adjust” inputs until the model finally shows collapse initiation
for the most severe cases. The details of these “adjustments” are
hidden from us, in their computerized hypotheticals, but “the hypothesis
is saved.” NIST also has Underwriters Laboratories construct models of
the WTC trusses, but the models withstand all fires in tests and do NOT
collapse. (See above for details.)
We are left without a compelling fire/damage model, unless
one blindly accepts the NIST computer simulation while ignoring the model
fire-tests, which I’m not willing to do. And none of the “official”
models outlined above accounts for what happens to the buildings AFTER
the building is “poised for collapse” (NIST, 2005, p. 142) – namely the
rapid and symmetrical and complete (no tall-standing central core)
collapses. Reports of explosions, heard and seen, are not discussed.
And they ignore the squibs seen ejected from floors far from where the
jets hit – particularly seen in WTC 7 (where no jet hit at all).
Finally, what about that molten metal under the rubble piles of all three
WTC skyscrapers?
Remarkably, the explosive demolition hypothesis accounts for
all the available data rather easily. The core columns on lower floors
are cut using explosives, near-simultaneously, along with explosives
detonated up higher so that gravity acting on now-unsupported floors
helps bring down the buildings quickly. The collapses are thus
symmetrical, rapid and complete, with accompanying squibs -- really very
standard stuff for demolition experts. Thermite (whose end product is
molten iron) used on some of the steel beams readily accounts for the
molten metal which then pooled beneath the rubble piles.
I believe this is a straightforward hypothesis, much more probable than
the official hypothesis. It deserves scientific scrutiny, beyond what I
have been able to outline in this treatise.
CONCLUSIONS
I have called attention to glaring inadequacies in the “final” reports
funded by the US government and shown evidences for a likely alternative
hypothesis. In particular, the official theory lacks repeatability in
that no actual models or buildings (before or since 9-11-01) have been
observed to completely collapse due to the proposed fire-based
mechanisms. On the other hand, dozens of buildings have been completely
and symmetrically demolished through the use of pre-positioned
explosives. The “explosive demolition” hypothesis better satisfies tests
of repeatability and parsimony and therefore is not “junk science.” It
ought to be seriously, scientifically investigated and debated.
A truly independent, international panel would consider all viable
hypotheses, including the pre-positioned-explosives theory, guided not by
politicized notions and constraints, but rather by observations and
calculations, to reach a scientific conclusion. Questioning (preferably
under oath) of officials who approved the rapid removal and destruction
of the WTC steel beams and columns before they could be properly analyzed
– and others as outlined above – should proceed in the United States.
None of the government-funded studies have provided serious analyses of
the explosive demolition hypothesis at all. Until the above steps are
taken, the case for accusing ill-trained Muslims of causing all the
destruction on 9-11-01 is far from compelling. It just does not add up.
And that fact should be of great concern to Americans. (Ryan, 2004).
Clearly, we must find out what really caused the WTC skyscrapers to
collapse as they did.
To this end, NIST must release the 6,899 photographs and over 300 hours
of video recordings – acquired mostly by private parties – which it
admits to holding (NIST, 2005, p. 81). In particular, photos and
analyses of the molten metal (probably not molten steel) observed in the
basements of both Towers and WTC7 need to be brought forth to the
international community of scientists and engineers immediately.
Therefore, along with others, I call for the release of these and all
relevant data for scrutiny by a cross-disciplinary, international team of
researchers. The explosive-demolition hypothesis will be considered:
all options will be on the table.
AFTERWORD
In writing this paper, I call for a serious investigation of the
hypothesis that WTC7 and the Twin Towers were brought down, not just by
damage and fires, but through the carefully planned use of explosives. I
have presented ample evidence for the explosive-demolition hypothesis,
which is testable and falsifiable and yet has not been seriously
considered in any of the studies funded by the US government.
At the same time, I acknowledge that other notions have sprung up in the
near vacuum of official consideration of this very plausible hypothesis.
These notions must be subjected to careful scrutiny. I by no means
endorse all such ideas. For example, there is a notion that something
other than Boeing jetliners hit the WTC Towers (see Hoffman, 2005;
Chertoff, 2005). Scrutiny of photographs and videos provides compelling
evidence that jets did in fact hit these buildings (Hoffman, 2005;
Chertoff, 2005). A March 2005 article in Popular Mechanics focuses on
poorly-supported claims and proceeds to ridicule the whole “9-11 truth
movement” (Chertoff, 2005). Serious replies to this article have already
been written (Hoffman, 2005; Baker, 2005; Meyer, 2005).
Those espousing weak or untestable claims may be damaging the effort to
achieve a rational debate of important issues by poisoning the process
with “junk science”. Likewise, the notion that the “explosive
demolition” hypothesis should not be debated since it would imply a
“conspiracy theory” departs from good science as well as from numerous
historical precedents of empirical conspiracies (Jones, 2005).
Scientific inquiry is not or should not be dictated by politics (Mooney,
2005).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge comments and contributions by Jim Hoffman and
Jeff Strahl, and Professors Jack Weyland, David Ray Griffin, Bryan
Peterson, Paul Zarembka and Derrick Grimmer.
REFERENCES
Baker, Jeremy (2005). “Contrary to Popular (Mechanics’) Belief,” Global
Outlook, Issue 10, p. 14 (Spring-Summer 2005).
Bazant, Z. P. and Zhou, Y. (2002). “Why Did the World Trade Center
Collapse? Simple Analysis,” J. Eng. Mech. 128:2, January 2002.
Bazant, Z. P. and Zhou, Y. (March 2002). “Addendum to ‘Why Did the World
Trade Center Collapse? Simple Analysis,” J. Eng. Mech. 128:369, March
2002.
Bollyn, Christopher (2002). “New seismic data refutes official
explanation,” American Free Press, September 3, 2002, available at:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/09_03_02/NEW_SEISMIC_/new_seismic_.html.
Chertoff, B., et al. (2005). “9/11: Debunking the Myths,” Popular
Mechanics, March 2005.
Commission (2004). The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States,
Authorized Edition, New York: W.W. Norton.
De Grand Pre, Donn (2002). “Many Questions Still Remain About Trade
Center Attack,” American Free Press, February 3, 2002, available at:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/02_03_
02/Trade_Center_Attack/trade_center_attack.html
Dwyer, James (2005). “City to Release Thousands of Oral Histories of
9/11 Today,” New York Times, August 12, 2005, with quotes of
eyewitnesses available in New York Times archives at
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812
_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_01.html and
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812
_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html.
Eager, T. W. and Musso, C. (2001). “Why Did the World Trade Center
Collapse? Science, Engineering, and Speculation”, Journal of the
Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 53/12:8-11 (2001).
FEMA (2005). “World Trade Center Building Performance Study,” released
May 2002, available at: http://www.fema.gov/library/wtcstudy.shtm.
Field, Andy (2004). “A Look Inside a Radical New Theory of the WTC
Collapse,” Fire/Rescue News, February 7, 2004. Available at
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=46&id=
25807
Glanz, James (2001). “Engineers are baffled over the collapse of 7 WTC;
Steel members have been partly evaporated,” New York Times, November 29.
2001.
Glanz, James, and Lipton, Eric (2002). “Towers Withstood Impact, but Fell
to Fire, Report Says,” Fri March 29, 2002, New York Times.
Griffin, David Ray (2004). The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions
about the Bush Administration and 9/11, Northampton, Massachusetts:
Interlink.
Griffin, David Ray (2005). The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and
Distortions, Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink.
Harris, Tom (2000). “How Building Implosions Work,” available at:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/building-implosion.htm, ca. 2000.
Hoffman, James (2005). “Popular Mechanics' Assault on 9/11 Truth,”
Global Outlook, Issue 10, p. 21 (Spring-Summer 2005).
Hufschmid, Eric (2002). Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September
11th Attack, Goleta, California: Endpoint Software.
Jones, S. E. (2005). “The Official 9-11 Story as ‘Bad Science’,” Paper
in preparation.
Lane, B., and Lamont, S. (2005). “Arup Fire’s presentation regarding
tall buildings and the events of 9/11,” ARUP Fire, April 2005. Available
at: http://www.arup.com/DOWNLOADBANK/download353.pdf
Manning, William (2002). “Selling out the investigation,” Editorial,
Fire Engineering, January 2002.
Meyer, Peter (2005). "Reply to Popular Mechanics re 9/11,"
http://serendipity.li/wot/pop_mech/reply_to_popular_mechanics.htm, March
2005.
Mooney, Chris (2005). The Republican War on Science, New York, NY:
Basic Books.
NIST (2005). http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/NISTNCSTAR1Draft.pdf (“Final
Report of the National Construction Safety Team on the Collapses of the
World Trade Center Towers (Draft)”), Sept.-Oct. 2005.
NISTb (2005). http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/WTC%20Part%20IIC%20-%20WTC%207%
20Collapse%20Final.pdf%20WTC%207%20Collapse%20Final.pdf (Part IIC – WTC
7 Collapse, preliminary), 2005.
NOVA (2002). "Why the Towers Fell," originally broadcast Tuesday, April
30, 2002; see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/.
Paul, Don, and Hoffman, Jim (2004). Waking Up From Our Nightmare : The
9/11/01 Crimes in New York City, San Francisco:
Irresistible/Revolutionary.
Penn Arts and Sciences (2002). Penn Arts and Sciences, summer 2002 ,
available at
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/summer2002/k911.html.
Risen, James (2001). “Secretive CIA Site in New York Was Destroyed on
Sept. 11,” New York Times, November 4, 2001.
Ryan, Kevin (2004). Letter to Frank Gayle, available at
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041112144051451
Ryan, Kevin (2005). “A Call for a Personal Decision,” Global Outlook,
Issue 10, p. 96 (Spring-Summer 2005).
Williams, James (2001). “WTC a structural success,” SEAU NEWS; The
Newsletter of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah, October 2001,
p. 1,3.
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--
http://www.bedoper.com
You have been banned for the following reason:
You broke about every forum rule possible.
Date the ban will be lifted: Never
http://www.bautforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19
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| User: "Spaulding Greystoke" |
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| Title: The Death of Science was Re: BYU Physics Professor vs Some Guy On Usenet |
02 Dec 2005 10:47:46 AM |
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"missingkids@gmail.com" <missingkids@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1133539895.994134.187740@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
spaulding wrote "So you can disprove the physics professor's paper?"
Aliens have landed and taken over the white house. Cheney is the grand
poobah of the planet zorcon and they have come to suck out our brains.
You can't disprove that either, doesn't make it true.
Or is it?
Science. Wacky alien crap you made up on the spot.
The same thing, eh?
--
http://www.bedoper.com
You have been banned for the following reason:
You broke about every forum rule possible.
Date the ban will be lifted: Never
http://www.bautforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: The Death of Science was Re: BYU Physics Professor vs Some Guy On Usenet |
05 Dec 2005 01:14:43 PM |
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|
Spaulding wrote "Science. Wacky alien crap you made up on the spot. The
same thing, eh?"
The Professor's paper, Science Fiction, same thing. Yes.
.
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| User: "Spaulding Greystoke" |
|
| Title: Re: The Death of Science was Re: BYU Physics Professor vs Some Guy On Usenet |
05 Dec 2005 07:40:58 PM |
|
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"missingkids@gmail.com" <missingkids@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1133810083.479339.266900@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Spaulding wrote "Science. Wacky alien crap you made up on the spot. The
same thing, eh?"
The Professor's paper, Science Fiction, same thing. Yes.
Because you say so, right?
The views in this paper are the sole responsibility of the author (not
Brigham Young University).
DRAFT 2.5
Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?
By Steven E. Jones
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84604
ABSTRACT
In writing this paper, I call for a serious investigation of the
hypothesis that WTC 7 and the Twin Towers were brought down, not just by
damage and fires, but through the use of pre-positioned explosives. I
consider the official FEMA, NIST, and 9-11 Commission reports that fires
plus damage alone caused complete collapses of all three buildings. And
I present evidence for the explosive-demolition hypothesis, which is
suggested by the available data, testable and falsifiable, and yet has
not been analyzed in any of the reports funded by the US government.
Let’s start with the collapse of the 47-story WTC 7, which was never hit
by a jet. I ask you to take a minute to look at the collapse of this
building as a basis for discussion.
WTC 7: 47 - Story, steel-frame building..
WTC 7 on afternoon of 9-11-01. WTC 7 is the tall
sky-scraper in the back-ground, right. Seen from WTC 1 area.
WTC 7 collapsed completely, onto its own footprint
Now that you have seen the still photographs, it is important to the
discussion which follows for you to observe video clips of the collapse
of this building, so go to:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html Click on the three
photos at the top of this web-site page in order to see the videos of the
collapse of WTC 7. It helps to have sound.
Then consider a video close-up of the same building (SW corner) as its
demise begins:
http://st12.startlogic.com/
~xenonpup/Flashes/squibs_along_southwest_corner.htm
What did you observe?
Symmetry: did the building collapse straight down (nearly symmetrically)
– or did it topple over?
Speed: How fast did the building fall? (Students and I measure less
than 6.6 seconds; time it!)
Smoke/debris-jets: Did you observe puffs of smoke/debris coming out of
the building? Please note for yourself the sequence and fast timing of
observed puffs or “squibs.” Note that reference to web pages is used in
this paper due largely to the importance of viewing motion picture clips,
thus enhancing consideration of the laws of motion and physics generally.
High-quality photographs showing details of the collapses of WTC 7 and
the WTC Towers can be found in books (Hufschmid, 2002; Paul and Hoffman,
2004), magazines (Hoffman, 2005; Baker, 2005) and at
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/photos/collapses.html.
My reasons for advancing the explosive-demolition hypothesis while
challenging the “official” fire-caused collapse hypothesis are these:
1. As you observed, WTC 7 collapsed rapidly and symmetrically -- even
though fires were randomly scattered in the building. WTC 7 fell about
seven hours after the Towers collapsed, even though no major persistent
fires were visible. There were twenty-four huge steel support columns
inside WTC 7 as well as huge trusses, arranged asymmetrically, along with
approximately 57 perimeter columns. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5.) A
symmetrical collapse, as observed, evidently requires the simultaneous
“pulling” of most or all of the support columns. The Second Law of
Thermodynamics implies that the likelihood of complete and symmetrical
collapse due to random fires as in the “official” theory is small, since
asymmetrical failure is so much more likely. On the other hand, a major
goal of controlled demolition using explosives is the complete and
symmetrical collapse of buildings.
Concluding remarks in the FEMA report on the WTC 7 collapse lend support
to my arguments:
The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to
collapse [“official theory”] remain unknown at this time. Although the
total diesel fuel on the premises contained massive potential energy, the
best hypothesis [fire/damage-caused collapse] has only a low probability
of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed
to resolve this issue. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5; emphasis added.)
That is precisely my point: further investigation and analyses are
needed, including consideration of the controlled-demolition hypothesis
which is neglected in all of the government reports (FEMA, NIST and 9-11
Commission reports). Note that the 9-11 Commission report does not even
mention the collapse of WTC 7 on 9-11-01. (Commission, 2004) This is a
striking omission of data highly relevant to the question of what really
happened on 9-11.
2. A New York Times article entitled “Engineers are baffled over the
collapse of 7 WTC; Steel members have been partly evaporated,” provides
relevant data.
Experts said no building like it [WTC7], a modern, steel-reinforced high-
rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire. (Glanz, 2001;
emphasis added.)
That’s correct – no such steel-beam building had ever before (or since)
completely collapsed due to fires! However, such complete, symmetrical
collapses in steel-frame buildings have indeed occurred many times before
-- all of them due to pre-positioned explosives in a procedure called
“implosion” or controlled demolition. What a surprise, then, for such an
occurrence in downtown Manhattan— three skyscrapers completely collapsed
on the same day, September 11, 2001.
Engineers have been trying to figure out exactly what happened and
whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the
country… Most of the other buildings in the [area] stood despite
suffering damage of all kinds, including fire... ‘Fire and the structural
damage …would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to
have been partly evaporated’, Dr. [Jonathan] Barnett said. (Glanz, 2001;
emphasis added.)
The observed “partly evaporated” steel members is particularly upsetting
to the official theory, since fires involving paper, office materials,
even diesel fuel, cannot generate temperatures anywhere near the 5,000+
oF needed to “evaporate” steel. However, thermite, RDX and other
commonly-used explosives can readily slice through steel (thus cutting
the support columns simultaneously in an explosive demolition) and reach
the required temperatures. (It is possible that some other chemical
reactions were involved which might proceed at lesser temperatures.)
This mystery needs to be explored – but is not mentioned in the
“official” 9-11 Commission or NIST reports.
3. There are several published observations of molten metal in the
basements of all three buildings, WTC 1, 2 (“Twin Towers”) and 7. For
example, Dr. Keith Eaton toured Ground Zero and stated in The Structural
Engineer,
‘They showed us many fascinating slides’ [Eaton] continued, ‘ranging from
molten metal which was still red hot weeks after the event, to 4-inch
thick steel plates sheared and bent in the disaster’. (Structural
Engineer, September 3, 2002, p. 6; emphasis added.)
The observation of molten metal at Ground Zero was emphasized publicly by
Leslie Robertson, the structural engineer responsible for the design of
the World Trade Center Towers, who reported that “As of 21 days after the
attack, the fires were still burning and molten steel was still running.”
(Williams, 2001, p. 3; emphasis added.)
Sarah Atlas was part of New Jersey's Task Force One Urban Search and
Rescue and was one of the first on the scene at Ground Zero with her
canine partner Anna. She reported in Penn Arts and Sciences, summer
2002,
‘Nobody's going to be alive.' Fires burned and molten steel flowed in
the pile of ruins still settling beneath her feet. (Penn, 2002; emphasis
added.)
Dr. Allison Geyh was one of a team of public health investigators from
Johns Hopkins who visited the WTC site after 9-11. She reported in the
Late Fall 2001 issue of Magazine of Johns Hopkins Public Health, "In some
pockets now being uncovered they are finding molten steel.” Further
information on the subject is available at
http://globalresearch.ca.myforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=11663.
Thus, molten metal was repeatedly observed and formally reported in the
rubble piles of the WTC Towers and WTC 7, metal that looked like molten
steel. However, scientific analysis, using for example X-ray
fluorescence, would be needed to ascertain the actual composition of the
molten metal.
I maintain that these published observations are consistent with the use
of the high-temperature thermite reaction, used to cut or demolish steel.
Thermite is a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum powder. The end
products of the thermite reaction are aluminum oxide and molten iron. So
the thermite reaction generates molten iron directly, and is hot enough
to melt and even evaporate steel which it contacts while reacting. Use
of sulfur in conjunction with the thermite should accelerate the
destructive effect on steel, and sulfidation of structural steel was
indeed observed in some of the few recovered members from the WTC rubble.
(See http://www.911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/metallurgy/index.html.)
On the other hand, falling buildings (absent explosives) have
insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of
metal. The government reports admit that the building fires were
insufficient to melt steel beams -- then where did the molten metal come
from? Metals expert Dr. Frank Gayle (working with NIST) stated:
Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very
intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it
did not, the steel did not melt. (Field, 2005; emphasis added.)
None of the official reports tackles this mystery. Yet this is evidently
a significant clue to what caused the Towers and WTC 7 to collapse. So I
would very much like to see an analysis of the elemental composition of
the metal, and could do this myself if a small sample were made available
according to scientific courtesy. Any reader who knows of chemical
analyses or even photographs of this molten metal found below the rubble
piles of WTC 1, 2 and 7 is invited to speak out and contact the author.
This could lead to an experiment crucis.
4. Horizontal puffs of smoke and debris are observed emerging from WTC-7
on upper floors, in regular sequence, just as the building starts to
collapse. (The reader may wish to view the close-up video clip again.)
The upper floors have not moved relative to one another yet, as one can
verify from the videos. In addition, the timing between the puffs is
less than 0.2 seconds so air-expulsion due to collapsing floors is
excluded. Free-fall time for a floor to fall down to the next floor is
significantly longer than 0.2 seconds: the equation for free fall, y = ½
gt2, yields a little over 0.6 seconds, as this is near the initiation of
the collapse.
However, the presence of such “squibs” proceeding up the side of the
building is common when pre-positioned explosives are used, as can be
observed at http://www.implosionworld.com/cinema.html. The same site
shows that rapid timing between explosive squibs is also common. (It is
instructive to view several of the implosion videos at this web site.)
Thus, squibs as observed during the collapse of WTC 7 going up the side
of the building in rapid sequence provide additional significant evidence
for the use of pre-placed explosives. Regarding this highly-secure
building, a NY Times article entitled “Secretive C.I.A. Site in New York
was Destroyed on Sept. 11,” provides an intriguing puzzle piece:
The C.I.A.'s undercover New York station was in the 47-story building at
7 World Trade Center… All of the agency's employees at the site were
safely evacuated… The intelligence agency's employees were able to watch
from their office windows while the twin towers burned just before they
evacuated their own building. (Risen, 2001)
5. The official FEMA 9-11 report admits a striking anomaly regarding the
North Tower collapse:
Review of videotape recordings of the collapse taken from various angles
indicates that the transmission tower on top of the structure began to
move downward and laterally slightly before movement was evident at the
exterior wall. This suggests that collapse began with one or more
failures in the central core area of the building. (FEMA, 2002, chapter
2; emphasis added.)
North Tower showing antenna (top) at beginning of
collapse.
Yes, we can see for ourselves that the antenna drops first from videos of
the North Tower collapse. (See
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/videos/wtc1_close_frames.html;
also http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/collapse.htm.) A NY Times
article also notes this behavior:
The building stood for more than an hour and a half. Videos of the north
tower's collapse appear to show that its television antenna began to drop
a fraction of a second before the rest of the building. The observations
suggest that the building's steel core somehow gave way first… (Glanz and
Lipton, 2002; emphasis added)
But how? What caused the 47 enormous steel core columns of this building
(which supported the antenna) to give way nearly simultaneously? That
mystery was raised by the FEMA report (FEMA, 2002, chapter 2) and the New
York Times (Glanz and Lipton, 2002) yet not solved in any official report
(FEMA, 2002; Commission, 2004; NIST, 2005). The odd behavior was not
even mentioned in the final NIST report (NIST, 2005), but some of us have
not forgotten.
Could random fires burning office materials in the building account for a
near-simultaneous “pulling” of these core supports? Certainly such an
event would have exceedingly low probability. Again, use of pre-
positioned explosives to cut the core columns first (standard demolition
practice) provides a simple yet elegant explanation for the observation,
satisfying the “Occam’s razor” test (Jones, 2005).
6. Multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were heard and reported by
numerous observers in and near the WTC Towers, consistent with explosive
demolition. Firemen and others described flashes and explosions in upper
floors near where the plane entered, and in lower floors of WTC 2 just
prior to its collapse, far below the region where the plane had struck
the tower (Dwyer, 2005). For instance, at the start of the collapse of
the South Tower a Fox News anchor reported:
There is an explosion at the base of the building… white smoke from the
bottom… something happened at the base of the building! Then another
explosion.” (De Grand Pre, 2002, emphasis added.)
Firefighter Edward Cachia independently reported:
[We] thought there was like an internal detonation, explosives, because
it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then the tower came
down…It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane
hit. (Dwyer, 2005; emphasis added.)
And assistant fire commissioner Stephen Gregory provides additional
insights:
When I looked in the direction of the Trade Center before it came down,
before No. 2 came down, ..I saw low-level flashes. In my conversation
with Lieutenant Evangelista, never mentioning this to him, he questioned
me and asked me if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and
I agreed with him because I thought -- at that time I didn't know what it
was. I mean, it could have been as a result of the building collapsing,
things exploding, but I saw a flash flash flash and then it looked like
the building came down.
Q. Was that on the lower level of the building or up where the fire was?
A. No, the lower level of the building. You know like when they
demolish a building, how when they blow up a building, when it falls
down? That's what I thought I saw. And I didn't broach the topic to him,
but he asked me. He said I don't know if I'm crazy, but I just wanted to
ask you because you were standing right next to me… He said did you see
any flashes? I said, yes, well, I thought it was just me. He said no,
I saw them, too. (Dwyer, 2005, Assistant Commissioner Stephen Gregory
FDNY WCT2 File No. 91 10008; emphasis added.)
It is highly unlikely that jet fuel was present to generate such
explosions especially on lower floors, and long after the planes hit the
buildings. Dr. Shyam Sunder, Lead Investigator for NIST stated: "The jet
fuel probably burned out in less than 10 minutes.” (Field, 2005) On the
other hand, pre-positioned explosives provide a plausible and simple
explanation for the observations, satisfying Occam’s razor (Jones, 2005).
Thus, it cannot be said that “no evidence” can be found for the use of
explosives. This serious matter needs to be treated as a plausible
scientific hypothesis and thoroughly investigated.
7. The horizontal ejection of steel beams for hundreds of feet and the
pulverization of concrete to flour-like powder, observed clearly in the
collapses of the WTC towers, provides further evidence for the use of
explosives – as well-explained in
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/towers/index.html. (See also, Griffin,
2004, chapter 2.)
North Tower during top-down collapse.
Notice mysterious squibs far below pulverization
region.
Unlike WTC7, the twin towers appear to have been exploded “top-down”
rather than proceeding from the bottom – which is unusual for controlled
demolition but clearly possible, depending on the order in which
explosives are detonated. That is, explosives may have been placed on
higher floors of the towers and exploded via radio signals so as to have
early explosions near the region where the plane entered the tower.
Certainly this hypothesis ought to be seriously considered in an
independent investigation using all available data.
8. I totally agree with the urgent yet reasoned assessment of expert
fire-protection engineers, as boldly editorialized in the journal Fire
Engineering:
Respected members of the fire protection engineering community are
beginning to raise red flags, and a resonating [result] has emerged: The
structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel
in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers.
Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official
investigation" blessed by FEMA… is a half-baked farce that may already
have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to
put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the
marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of
evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members-
described by one close source as a "tourist trip"-no one's checking the
evidence for anything.
Some citizens are taking to the streets to protest the investigation
sellout. Sally Regenhard, for one, wants to know why and how the
building fell as it did upon her unfortunate son Christian, an FDNY
probationary firefighter. And so do we.
Clearly, there are burning questions that need answers. Based on the
incident's magnitude alone, a full-throttle, fully resourced, forensic
investigation is imperative. More important, from a moral standpoint,
[are considerations] for the… present and future generations… (Manning,
2002; emphasis added).
9. The occurrence of nearly symmetrical, straight-down and complete
collapses of the WTC 7 and the Towers is particularly upsetting to the
“official” theory that random fires plus damage caused all these
collapses. Even with explosives, achieving such results requires a great
deal of pre-planning and expertise.
The main challenge in bringing a building down is controlling which way
it falls. Ideally, a blasting crew will be able to tumble the building
over on one side, into a parking lot or other open area. This sort of
blast is the easiest to execute [favored by the Law of Increasing
Entropy]. Tipping a building over is something like felling a tree. To
topple the building to the north, the blasters detonate explosives on the
north side of the building first…
Sometimes, though, a building is surrounded by structures that must be
preserved. In this case, the blasters proceed with a true implosion,
demolishing the building so that it collapses straight down into its own
footprint (the total area at the base of the building). This feat
requires such skill that only a handful of demolition companies in the
world will attempt it. [Again, consistent with the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.]
Blasters approach each project a little differently... [A good] option is
to detonate the columns at the center of the building before the other
columns so that the building's sides fall inward. (Harris, 2000; emphasis
added.)
Careful observation of the collapse of WTC 7 (video clips above)
demonstrates a downward “kink” near the center of the building first,
suggesting “pulling” of the support columns, then the building’s sides
pull inward such that the building “collapses straight down into its own
footprint” (Harris, 2000). FEMA admitted that WTC 7 collapsed onto a
well-confined footprint:
The collapse of WTC 7 had a small debris field as the facade was pulled
downward, suggesting an internal failure and implosion… The average
debris field radius was approximately 70 feet. (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5.)
Evidently we agree that this was a beautifully done implosion in the
collapse of WTC 7, and yet:
This feat requires such skill that only a handful of demolition companies
in the world will attempt it. (Harris, 2000; emphasis added.)
Consider: Why would terrorists undertake straight-down collapses of WTC7
and the Towers, when “toppling-over” falls would require much less work
and would do much more damage in downtown Manhattan? And where would
they obtain the necessary skills and access to the buildings for a
symmetrical implosion anyway? These questions suggest the need for
further investigation.
One of the people a thorough investigation should question would be
demolition expert Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition, Inc.
Speaking of the way the WTC buildings came down, he said in an interview:
“If I were to bring the towers down, I would put explosives in the
basement to get the weight of the building to help collapse the
structure.” (Bollyn, 2002; emphasis added.)
Just right – “explosives in the basement” agrees with eyewitness reports
of explosions down low in the buildings (point 6 above). Also, this
would be the way to effectively sever the support columns, consistent
with both the initial drop of the communication tower (WTC Tower 1) and
the “kink” in the middle of WTC 7 as its collapse began. Yes, and as
president of Controlled Demolition, Inc., Mr. Loizeaux would know the
“handful of demolition companies in the world [that] will attempt” a
symmetrical controlled demolition. (Harris, 2000) His company is
certainly one of these and was hired to do the rapid clean-up work
following the building collapses.
If you still haven’t looked at the rapid symmetrical collapse of WTC7 for
yourself, why not do so now? Watch for the initial “kink” or drop in the
middle, and for the “squibs” blowing in sequence up the side of the
building, and notice the symmetrical, straight-down collapse -- all so
common in controlled demolitions. See for yourself at:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html. A great deal of
further information is presented from a serious scientific point-of-view
at this site (http://911research.wtc7.net/).
10. I presented my objections to the “official” theory at a seminar at
BYU on September 22, 2005, to about sixty people. I also showed evidence
and scientific arguments for the explosive demolition theory. In
attendance were faculty from Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Civil
Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Geology, and Mathematics
– and perhaps other departments as I did not recognize all of the people
present. A local university and college were represented (BYU and Utah
Valley State College).
The discussion was vigorous and lasted nearly two hours. It ended only
when a university class needed the room. After presenting the material
summarized here, including actually looking at and discussing the
collapses of WTC 7 and the Towers, all except one attendee agreed (by
hand-vote) that further investigation of the WTC collapses was called
for. The next day, the dissenting professor said he had further thought
about it and now agreed that more investigation was needed. He joined
the others in hoping that the 6,899 photographs and 6,977 segments of
video footage held by NIST plus others held by the FBI would be released
for independent scrutiny; photos largely from private photographers
(NIST, 2005, p. 81). We call for the release of these data to a cross-
disciplinary, preferably international team of scientists and engineers.
11. One attendee to the BYU Seminar on 9-11 anomalies suggested I review
the paper by Bazant and Zhou, which I did. Quoting:
The 110-story towers of the World Trade Center were designed to withstand
as a whole the forces caused by a horizontal impact of a large commercial
aircraft. So why did a total collapse occur? (Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p.
2.)
Correct – jet collisions did not cause collapses – we can agree on that.
MIT’s Thomas Eager also concurs “because the number of columns lost on
the initial impact was not large and the loads were shifted to remaining
columns in this highly redundant structure” (Eager and Musso, 2001).
We continue with Bazant & Zhou:
The conflagration, caused by the aircraft fuel spilled into the
structure, causes the steel of the columns to be exposed to sustained
temperatures apparently exceeding 800oC… (Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p. 2.)
But here we note from the recent NIST report that: “The initial jet fuel
fires themselves lasted at most a few minutes” and office material fires
would burn out within about 20 minutes in a given location. (NIST, 2005;
p. 179, emphasis added.) Certainly jet fuel burning was not enough to
raise steel to sustained temperatures above 800oC. But we continue:
Once more than half of the columns in the critical floor.. suffer
buckling (stage 3), the weight of the upper part of the structure above
this floor can no longer be supported, and so the upper part starts
falling down onto the lower part below…”(Bazant and Zhou, 2002, p. 2.)
Bazant & Zhou do not explain how “more than half of the columns in the
critical floor [can] suffer buckling” at the same time to precipitate the
complete and nearly symmetrical collapse observed. There were 47 huge
steel core columns in each Tower, and 24 such support columns in WTC 7
(NIST 2005; NISTb, 2005).
The WTC towers were solidly constructed with 47 steel core
columns and 240 perimeter steel beams. 287 steel-columns total.
Many doubt that random fires/damage could cause them to
collapse straight down (official theory), and suspect
explosives.
Steel-frame: Huge core (left), enormous Heat Sink. Notice workers
standing on floor pan which is
firmly attached to the interconnected
core columns.
They do NOT explain how steel-column temperatures above 800oC were
achieved near-simultaneously due to burning office materials. NIST notes
that office materials in an area burn for about 15-20 minutes, then are
consumed away (NIST, 2005, pp. 117, 179). This is evidently not long
enough to raise steel column temperatures above 800oC as required in the
Bazant & Zhou model, given the enormous heat sinks of the structures.
And to have three buildings completely collapse due to this unlikely
mechanism on the same day strains credulity. Moreover, the Final NIST
report on the Towers admits:
Of the more than 170 areas examined on 16 perimeter column panels, only
three columns had evidence that the steel reached temperatures above
250ºC… Only two core column specimens had sufficient paint remaining to
make such an analysis, and their temperatures did not reach 250 ºC. ...
Using metallographic analysis, NIST determined that there was no evidence
that any of the samples had reached temperatures above 600 ºC. (NIST,
2005, pp. 176-177; emphasis added.)
As for WTC 7, Bazant & Zhou say little but mention in a separate
“addendum” that burning natural gas might have been a source of the
needed heat (Bazant and Zhou, March 2002, p. 370). The FEMA report
(FEMA, 2002) addresses this issue:
Early news reports had indicated that a high pressure, 24-inch gas main
was located in the vicinity of the building [WTC 7]; however, this proved
not to be true." (FEMA, 2002, chapter 5; emphasis added)
12. I have read through the hundreds of pages of the Final NIST report
on the collapses of the WTC Towers. (NIST, 2005) It is interesting to
note that NIST “decoupled” and delayed their final report on WTC 7, which
is overdue as of this writing (NIST, 2005; NISTb, 2005) I agree with
some of the NIST report; for example:
Both WTC 1 and WTC 2 were stable after the aircraft impact, standing for
102 min and 56 min, respectively. The global analyses with structural
impact damage showed that both towers had considerable reserve capacity.
This was confirmed by analysis of the post-impact vibration of WTC 2…
where the damaged tower oscillated at a period nearly equal to the first
mode period calculated for the undamaged structure. (NIST, 2005, p. 144;
emphasis added.)
At any given location, the duration of [air, not steel] temperatures near
1,000oC was about 15 min to 20 min. The rest of the time, the calculated
temperatures were near 500oC or below.” (NIST, 2005, p. 127, emphasis
added.)
NIST contracted with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. to conduct tests to
obtain information on the fire endurance of trusses like those in the WTC
towers… All four test specimens sustained the maximum design load for
approximately 2 hours without collapsing.” (NIST, 2005, p. 140, emphasis
added.)
However, I along with others challenge NIST’s collapse theory. NIST
maintains that all three building collapses were fire-initiated despite
the observations above, particularly the fact that fire endurance tests
with actual models did not result in collapse. In a paper by fire-
engineering experts in the UK, we find:
The basis of NIST’s collapse theory is… column behaviour in fire...
However, we believe that a considerable difference in downward displace
between the [47] core and [240] perimeter columns, much greater than the
300 mm proposed, is required for the collapse theory to hold true… [Our]
lower reliance on passive fire protection is in contrast to the NIST work
where the amount of fire protection on the truss elements is believed to
be a significant factor in defining the time to collapse… The [proposed
effect] is swamped by thermal expansion … Thermal expansion and the
response of the whole frame to this effect has NOT been described as yet
[by NIST]. (Lane and Lamont, 2005.)
I agree with these pointed objections, particularly that the “response of
the whole frame” of each building should be considered, especially heat
transport to the whole frame from localized fires, and that the “core
columns cannot pull the exterior columns in via the floor.” (Lane and
Lamont, 2005)
The computerized models of the Towers in the NIST study, which
incorporate many features of the buildings and the fires on 9-11-01, are
less than convincing. The Final report states:
The Investigation Team then defined three cases for each building by
combining the middle, less severe, and more severe values of the
influential variables. Upon a preliminary examination of the middle
cases, it became clear that the towers would likely remain standing. The
less severe cases were discarded after the aircraft impact results were
compared to observed events. The middle cases (which became Case A for
WTC 1 and Case C for WTC 2) were discarded after the structural response
analysis of major subsystems were compared to observed events. (NIST,
2005, p. 142; emphasis added.)
The NIST report makes for interesting reading. The less severe cases
based on empirical data were discarded because they did not result in
building collapse. But ‘we must save the hypothesis,’ so more severe
cases were tried and the simulations tweaked, as we read in the NIST
report:
The more severe case (which became Case B for WTC 1 and Case D for WTC 2)
was used for the global analysis of each tower. Complete sets of
simulations were then performed for Cases B and D. To the extent that the
simulations deviated from the photographic evidence or eyewitness reports
[e.g., complete collapse occurred], the investigators adjusted the input,
but only within the range of physical reality. Thus, for instance,…the
pulling forces on the perimeter columns by the sagging floors were
adjusted... (NIST, 2005, p. 142; emphasis added.)
The primary role of the floors in the collapse of the towers was to
provide inward pull forces that induced inward bowing of perimeter
columns. (NIST, 2005, p. 180; emphasis added.)
How fun to tweak the model like that, until the building collapses --
until one gets the desired result. But the end result of such tweaked
computer hypotheticals is not compelling, sorry gentlemen. Notice that
the “the pulling forces on the perimeter columns by the sagging floors
were adjusted” (NIST, 2005, p. 142; emphasis added) to get the perimeter
columns to yield sufficiently – one suspects these were “adjusted” by
hand quite a bit -- even though the UK experts complained that “the core
columns cannot pull the exterior [i.e., perimeter] columns in via the
floor.” (Lane and Lamont, 2005; emphasis added.)
I also agree with Kevin Ryan’s objections regarding the NIST study.
Kevin Ryan, at the time a manager at Underwriters Laboratories (UL),
makes a point of the non-collapse of actual WTC-based models in his
letter to Frank Gayle of NIST:
As I'm sure you know, the company I work for certified the steel
components used in the construction of the WTC buildings. In requesting
information from both our CEO and Fire Protection business manager last
year… they suggested we all be patient and understand that UL was working
with your team… I'm aware of UL's attempts to help, including performing
tests on models of the floor assemblies. But the results of these tests…
indicate that the buildings should have easily withstood the thermal
stress caused by… burning [jet fuel, paper, etc.]. (Ryan, 2004)
That models of WTC trusses at Underwriter Laboratories (UL) subjected to
fires did NOT fail is also admitted in the final NIST report:
NIST contracted with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. to conduct tests to
obtain information on the fire endurance of trusses like those in the WTC
towers…. All four test specimens sustained the maximum design load for
approximately 2 hours without collapsing… The Investigation Team was
cautious about using these results directly in the formulation of
collapse hypotheses. In addition to the scaling issues raised by the test
results, the fires in the towers on September 11, and the resulting
exposure of the floor systems, were substantially different from the
conditions in the test furnaces. Nonetheless, the [empirical test]
results established that this type of assembly was capable of sustaining
a large gravity load, without collapsing, for a substantial period of
time relative to the duration of the fires in any given location on
September 11. (NIST, 2005, p. 141; emphasis added.)
So how does the NIST team justify the WTC collapses, when actual models
fail to collapse and there are zero examples of fire-caused high-rise
collapses? Easy, NIST concocted computer-generated hypotheticals for
very “severe” cases, called cases B and D (NIST, 2005, pp. 124-138). Of
course, the details are rather hidden to us. And they omit consideration
of the complete, rapid and symmetrical nature of the collapses.
Indeed, NIST makes the startling admission in a footnote on page 80 of
their Final Report:
The focus of the Investigation was on the sequence of events from the
instant of aircraft impact to the initiation of collapse for each tower.
For brevity in this report, this sequence is referred to as the "probable
collapse sequence," although it does not actually include the structural
behavior of the tower after the conditions for collapse initiation were
reached...(NIST, 2005, p. 80, fn. 12; emphasis added.)
Again, on page 142, NIST admits that their computer simulation only
proceeds until the building is “poised for collapse”, thus ignoring any
data from that time on.
The results were a simulation of the structural deterioration of each
tower from the time of aircraft impact to the time at which the building
became unstable, i.e., was poised for collapse. ...(NIST, 2005, p. 142;
emphasis added.)
What about the subsequent complete, rapid and symmetrical collapse of the
buildings? What about the observed squibs? What about the antenna
dropping first in the North Tower? What about the molten metal observed
in the basement areas in large pools in both Towers and WTC 7 as well?
Never mind all that: NIST did not discuss at all any data after the
buildings were “poised for collapse.” Well, some of us want to look at
ALL the data, without computer simulations that are “adjusted,” perhaps
to make them fit the desired outcome.
13. Kevin Ryan, the whistleblower from Underwriters Laboratories, did
his own statistical analysis in a recent letter regarding the NIST
report, arguing that probabilities of collapse-initiation needed to be
calculated (Ryan, 2005). NIST nowhere provides such a likelihood
analysis for their non-explosive collapse model. Ryan’s analysis is that
the probability that fires and damage (the “official theory”) could cause
the Towers complete collapse is less than one in a trillion, and the
probability is much less still when the complete collapse of WTC7 is
included (Ryan, 2005). Nor does NIST (or FEMA or the 9-11 Commission)
even mention the molten metals found in the basements of all three
buildings (WTC 1, 2 and 7).
So where does that leave us? I strongly agree with Kevin Ryan,
This [“official”] story just does not add up…. That fact should be of
great concern to all Americans…. There is no question that the events of
9/11 are the emotional driving force behind the War on Terror. And the
issue of the WTC collapse is at the crux of the story of 9/11. (Ryan,
2004; emphasis added.)
14. The NIST team fairly admits that their report “does not actually
include the structural behavior of the tower after the conditions for
collapse initiation were reached.” (NIST, 2005, p. 80, fn. 1; emphasis
added.) Quite a confession, since much of the external evidence for
explosive demolition typically comes after collapse initiation, as seen
in cases of acknowledged controlled demolition. (Harris, 2000.)
The rapid fall of the Towers and WTC7 has been analyzed by several
engineers/scientists
(http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/proofs/speed.html; Griffin,
2004, chapter 2). The roof of WTC 7 (students and I are observing the
southwest corner) falls to earth in less than 6.6 seconds, while an
object dropped from the roof would hit the ground in 6.0 seconds. This
follows from t = (2H/g)1/2. Likewise, the Towers fall very rapidly to
the ground, with the upper part falling nearly as rapidly as ejected
debris which provide free-fall references
(http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/proofs/speed.html; Griffin,
2004, chapter 2). Where is the delay that must be expected due to
conservation of momentum – one of the foundational Laws of Physics? That
is, as upper-falling floors strike lower floors – and intact steel
support columns – the fall must be significantly impeded by the impacted
mass. If the central support columns remained standing, then the
effective resistive mass would be less, but this is not the case –
somehow the enormous support columns failed/disintegrated along with the
falling floor pans.
How do the upper floors fall so quickly, then, and still conserve
momentum in the collapsing buildings? The contradiction is ignored by
FEMA, NIST and 9-11 Commission reports where conservation of momentum and
the fall times were not analyzed. The paradox is easily resol | | | |
