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

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

Implications to Other Questions

Did the US Government play a part in the 9/11 attacks?

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Experts In Politics

Jessie Ventura Former Governor of Minnesota

Agree

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.

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02 Apr 2008 Source

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Experts In Science

Frank Moscatelli Physics Professor

Disagree

[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.

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14 Sep 2001 Source

Experts In Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) US Government Agency

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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.

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14 Dec 2007 Source

Suggested Expert Quotes

Steven Jones, retired professor of physics at BYU

"It looks like thermite with sulfur added, which really is a very clever idea." ...video showed a yellow, molten substance splashing off the side of the south Trade Tower. Government investigators ruled out the possibility of melting steel... because of the unlikelihood of steel melting. The investigators said the molten material must have been aluminum from the plane. But molten aluminum is silvery. It never turns yellow. The substance observed in the videos "just isn't aluminum," he said. But, he said, thermite can cause steel to melt and become yellowish. Another item of evidence, Jones said, is the fact that sulfur traces were found in structural steel recovered from the Trade Towers. Jones quoted the New York Times as saying sulfidization in the recovered steel was "perhaps the deepest mystery uncovered in the (official) investigation." But, he said, sulfidization fits the theory that sulfur was combined with thermite to make the thermite burn even hotter...

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0 Points Badassack 12 Sep 2009 Stance on Question: Agree

It seems we are forgetting the firefighters,police,news and people on scene who state there were secondary explosions. Explosions in the basement, on multiple lower story floors. The evidence was everywhere. But when you murder over half the witnesses by crumbling the building around them you don't have to answer their questions. Building 7? B.S. what a crock. oh, oh, and the pentagon! How many cameras were on that side of the building? 50 or so? and we have two frames of footage? yeah right. Flight 93? no bodies? no luggage? no jewelry? no nothing? phffff!! Oklahoma city? 3 more bombs found inside building. Wheres the MAJOR medias report on that? When people first got there there was no report of a truck bomb. the damage done was reported to be from the 1 bomb that went off from inside the building. (local media)
It wasn't until the Fed's and Major networks showed up that we heard about a truck bomb. But then what happened to the Bombs the FBI was pulling out of the building? The American people are being spoon fed BS and taking it in, in the name of patriotism. So you probably wonder who is this guy? I'm an OIF2 war vet. I served as a scout/sniper. Our sector was the major portion of downtown Baghdad and the northern half of Sadr city. I have seen the lies first hand in combat. I have seen what the government is all about. It's about saving face. Not patriotism or loyalty or caring for it's citizens. It's about control. Media,civilian, control plain and simple. Our government is no longer "of the people, by the people and for the people" Wake up America. Before your put to sleep permanently.

1 Point Benja 13 Sep 2008 General Comment

As a leader who should have experience in delegation, why is Jesse not relying on a physicist to answer this question? It seems he's making the assumption that each floor would provide enough resistance to (at minimum) momentarily stop the motion of the floors above it.