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Was the collapse of the twin towers only physically possible by controlled demolition?

Topics: Terrorism September 11th Attacks Science

Background

Skeptics of the conventional account of the collapse of the twin towers suggest that the collapse of the twin towers was not physically possible except by timed explosives.

Implications

Expert Opinions

What's Your TakeOnIt?

Agree

Quote

Former Governor of Minnesota

If you took a billiard ball and dropped it from the height of the World Trade Center in a vacuum it would hit the ground in 9.3 seconds and if you took that same billiard ball and dropped it 10 stories at a time and merely stopped it and started it it would take 30 seconds - if you dropped it every floor of the World Trade Center to the ground, simply stopping and starting it on gravity it would take over 100 seconds to reach the ground.

02 Apr 2008 Source

Disagree

Quote

Professor of Physics, Swarthmore College

[The collapse was] due to the large mass and height of the towers. The airplanes destroyed 20 stories of the buildings, and gravity did the rest. Their splendor was their undoing. ... [The energy was] equivalent to the detonation of 0.2 Kilo tons of TNT... as comparison, the Hiroshima bomb was 10 kilo tons TNT equivalent.

14 Sep 2001 Source

Disagree

National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) U.S. Government Agency

Since the release of the Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in October 2005, NIST has received many questions from interested readers curious about NIST’s findings and the technical basis for them. The complexity of the investigation and the length of the final report ... have made understanding of the investigation a challenge for many interested readers. In response, NIST has prepared simplified answers to the most frequently asked questions.

14 Dec 2007 Source