re: A place for all things 7 World Trade Center [W:424,1132]
Another compilation re-post, this time re:
How 7 World Trade Could be Rigged for Controlled Demolition, Part 1.
The
commonly accepted hypothesis for the collapse of 7 World Trade Center is that it happened in 3 stages over a period of about 25 seconds as a result of prolonged exposure to un-fought fires combined with the buildings unique (one could even say flawed) structural design. In the hours leading up to the collapse of 7 World Trade Center firefighters reported the building was fully involved in fire, was creaking, moaning and leaning, and had developed a bulge about 3 stories tall in one side - all signs of imminent collapse. After burning for 7 hours with little to no significant fire suppression Column 79 began to buckle as evidenced by the kink in the roof of the East Mechanical Penthouse (EPH), then Column 79 failed as evidenced by the collapse of the EPH into the structure and window breakage along the column line.
With Column 79 gone a series of failures in the load transfer region resulted in a progressive collapse of the rest of the interior structure from east to west as evidenced by the progression of window breakage, the collapse of the WPH and the kink in the roof line at roughly the mid-point of the building.
The final stage was the collapse of the now un-supported exterior curtain wall (the bit we see in all the videos on Youtube). During this final stage retired high school teacher David Chandler took a measurement from a single point on the roofline and determined that for a period of 2.25 seconds this point
averaged free-fall acceleration. Chandler presented his calculations to the NIST who concurred and included it in their final report on the collapse of 7 WTC.
The CD Alternative
Conspiracy theorists reject most or all of the above. For conspiracy theorists, the seeming 'symmetric' neatness of the visible 3rd stage of collapse superficially reminds them of a pre-planned and controlled building demolition using explosives. Fuel was added to this fire with the discovery of a brief period of 'free-fall' during the collapse, which the non-structural engineering literate presume can only happen with CD. Now CD of course has to mean the building was intentionally demolished and the preparations for this could
only have been done prior to 9/11 which means for them 7 WTC is the
smoking gun of an inside-job rather than incidental collateral damage of little importance outside the structural engineering community.
The problem for conspiracy theorists is they have never been able to explain
how it was done or how it could have been done (let alone why anyone would bother - but that is for a different post). Few in fact even try,... but they just know it was a CD and anyone who says otherwise is a paid government shill or a blind sheeple.
:thinking :think: ... :bomb:
One rare exception is Tony Szamboti, who believes the 2.25 seconds of free-fall measured by David Chandler represents the entire building, not just a single point on the corner of the roof of the curtain wall (and that it also represents 2.25 seconds
AT free-fall - it doesn't). T Sz also believes that free-fall must = CD so to make CD fit this measurement he has had to invent a scenario where the 24 core columns on 8 floors had to be removed for CD to match the observed 2.25 seconds of free-fall so therefore they were all rigged to blow simultaneously, resulting in a
symmetrical collapse of the entire building together. Without that he can't explain the 2.25 seconds of G.
Or in other words, his hypothesis relies on at least two false starting premises - free-fall and symmetry = CD.
But more importantly the Szamboti hypothesis only seeks to explain the alleged symmetry and brief period of
average free-fall. It ignores everything that happened up until the moment the curtain wall began to move. It also does not attempt to answer why on earth would anyone rig
24 columns to blow over 8 floors when one or two floors max would be sufficient to bring down the building? Isn't that a bit overkill? After all, Dr. Evil and his minions presumably had the goal of simply bringing down the building by the most expedient means possible (
why is a different matter), not bringing it down in a way that gives this overly convoluted story a chance to make sense. Therefore rigging some but perhaps not even all of the core columns over maybe one or two floors as close to ground level as possible should be far more than sufficient. After all, as NIST demonstrated later even removing one column would do the job if you chose the right one, but I'm getting ahead of myself,...
Tony - after a very long delay and much evasion replied to this that 8 floors had to be blown to ensure the building completely collapsed, thus easing the later cleanup process at the site. As we all know ease of post-collapse cleanup would have been a high priority concern to evil people who were planning to blow up much of lower Manhattan and kill thousands of people to start wars for oil, institute the Patriot Act, etc,etc, etc,.. Perfectly reasonable.
Another problem is that like all CD scenarios that is completely incompatible with a 3-stage progressive collapse. So in order to make
symmetrical CD at free-fall work the collapse of the EPH is treated as a separate, almost unrelated event and it is claimed the interior columns and exterior curtain wall fell together, which is contrary to the design of the building and the observations of the roof and window breakage.
CD - How Was it Done?
But there is an even bigger problem - how could this Herculean task have been accomplished in total secrecy, especially as some claim the media were let in on the plot?
What we need is a to address the practical problems of MHI/CD, detailing the amount and type of work that would for example be required for say 7 World Trade Center which would be the easiest of the 3. Start with Tony's 24 columns over 8 floors claim since, however incomplete, it is the closest thing we currently have here to a collapse initiation hypothesis that does not involve fire as the proximate cause AND Szamboti has not made any attempt so far as I am aware to solve the practical logistical problems.
With the Szamboti hypothesis as our baseline scenario we need to describe the preparation work required to accomplish something like that. Amount of time, types and quantities of devices required, how much effort to install, how many people involved, how they would be placed and wired without disrupting business as usual AND without anyone noticing their offices being torn to bits to make it all happen. That's the really tricky bit - how does one pull this off without getting caught. Then of course, how loud and obvious the whole thing would be when set off. And lets not forget, how did the charges and associated wiring survive 7 hours of fire?
OR
Since the final NIST model rather surprisingly revealed the crucial role played by the removal of Column 79 to the buildings survival (that its removal would initiate global collapse) we could discuss what is involved with just removing a chunk of that column to initiate a progressive global collapse. But it does mean we have to accept progressive collapse, which Truthers by and large do not - which leaves us with the Szamboti option as the only thing on the table - unless someone has a better idea. While this scenario is of course presumably much easier/less risky to set up it requires
hindsight knowledge, which seems unlikely. Therefore a genuine exploration of CD would have to start without hindsight, or in other words again with Tony's scenario which represents a conventional, no-hindsight approach.
