Friday, May 20, 2011

Growing Weary of the 9-11 Truthers.

It seems like about once a month or so we get another article somewhere either raising questions if not making nefarious accusations about the fate of Building 7 at the World Trade Center. The latest being that it was deliberately brought down so that it could be done in a controlled manner so as to minimize any collateral damage of it coming down on its own.

Whether it’s this scenario or any of the others, there are a couple of questions that I never see addressed. One: If it was a controlled demolition, how was it done so quickly? There exist many video productions of controlled demolitions. They all, without exception, document how it is a well thought out, planned and fully engineered process involving specific physical modifications to the structure that can take weeks if not months to put into place before the sirens go off and the button is pushed. Two: Even if one were to dismiss question #1 and contend that it was “rush job” executed to some pre- arranged plan, how can it be explained that during those events of that terrible day, as literally dozens if not hundreds of cameras both of the news media and private citizens, were focused on ground zero, no one has come forth with any video of these alleged demolition crews either going into or out of the building. Police, fire and rescue crews were everywhere, yet none have come forward to document any such “suspicious activity.”

I do know that that the center of building 7 contained a large open area with large, long span beams supporting the structure above it. These beams, as manufactured and installed may well have been more than adequate to do the intended job and I’m sure calculated to factors of safety to withstand shock loads. Much of the strength of these kinds of beam structures comes from both the particular alloy used and from how they are heat treated to lock in particular grain structures in order to maximize and balance yield and tensile strengths. When these kinds of specially conditioned steels are subsequently subjected to prolonged exposure to heat, as with an uncontrolled fire, grain structures change, molecules revert from the stronger face centered structure to the weaker body centered structure, and their thermally engineered strength goes away. Already subjected to huge loads, coming out of design intent, that their new metallurgical condition can no longer sustain, they bend and collapse. Having been located centrally in the structure everything then fell into this now unsupported void, looking very much like a “controlled” event.

Just my two cents worth, but I think it’s kind of an “Occam’s razor” kind of deal.

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