Friday, January 17, 2025

Why did the upper floors of the South Tower get destroyed when the tower collapsed, and why didn’t it survive?

Not too difficult to understand why.

Burning jet fuel at temperatures up to 1,800°F weakens the steel support columns keeping everything together.

Built to resist typical office fires around 1,200°F, these columns started to weaken and lose their structural integrity.

Imagine it like a strong oak tree whose core has been hollowed out by illness; it may appear sturdy but its strength is damaged.

Comprising thousands of tons, the top stories were virtually balanced on these deteriorating supports.

Physics seized with terrible efficiency once the heated steel lost around half of its strength.

The great weight of these floors produced an irresistible downward pull. The top piece dropped with great kinetic force, equal to a small tactical weapon, when the weaker columns at last yielded way.

This first fall set off an explosive series of events. Every floor below behaved like a hammer, striking with exponentially more force as gravity pulled matter down.

The weight of the structure became its executioner; every impact added more debris and energy to the cascade.

The infrastructure has no hope of survival once this starts.

Simply too much velocity and energy release for the surviving supports to withstand. 

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