Well, how a continuous column can impact on itself is something I find quite interesting for one. I say that if floors were raining down collapsing each other then the trusses would be failing at the connections to the core, they would snap, and the core would hold. I can think of no way that the core is going to be torn apart. There is nothing in the NIST model to say otherwise. Maybe you, or TA, or BTL aren't bothered at all by this lack of modelling. Perhaps you can wave hands around and go 'well it's obvious it would all fail like it did'. Well in which case, when demolishing a skyscraper, there'd be no need to plant any explosives. You could just cut a few columns and then light a big fire in the middle. You'd know that you would then get a beautiful implosion with no fear that the building might either completely stay up, or lurch over sideways. But are we about to do away with explosives for CD? I don't think so.Crispy said:Falling debris can demolish a spire. For a start, once the top 20 storeys started to fall, it impacted the top of the core below. There's some immediate on-axis forces right there. Then, once the collapse was underway, any failing members that buckle inwards will generate a lateral force, trasmitted by the floors and any other intermediate debris, to the core. Also, floors ripping away or being pushed in towards the core would also damage it. It's in the nature of droping things, that when they impact, they deflect and go sideways. Any number of things going sideways will be thrown around. WIth a fuck lot of energy, remember. e=mv^2 - there's a lot of mass, falling pretty quickly. Do the maths.
Actually it's not my side that's arguing from a position of belief and faith. And you also reveal the mentality of a missionary, judging your efforts by whether I am converted or not! I think I told you you weren't going to. I don't take the same view. I'll say what I think, and whether you change your mind or not is totally your business. In some time, you'll realise that I was pretty much right about everything and you'll go - "jesus christ, of course the towers were blown up, you can see it all over the place! how could I ever have thought otherwise?". That will be far better than editor and others of course, who will simply say "I knew it was fishy all along, I never really believed the official line, but jazzz got in the way". In the meantime, you can think I'm a likeable gullible moron. Fancy a game of scrabble? chess? backgammon?Finally, your ordering of the statements "I believe this" therefore "I know this" as opposed to "I know this" therefore "I believe this" satifies me that this entire thread is utterly, utterly pointless. Because you work from a position of belief and faith, not reason, you will never be convinced. We have all wasted our time, and you are deluded. That really really pisses me off, because I quite like you in real life, and every time I meet you from now on, I'm going to have to fight off this rising feeling that you're a gullible moron. I'm very sorry.