Reply #191: Underneath was mostly air [View All]

[ThoughtCriminal]

"First, the building is not solid; it is 95 percent air and, hence, can implode onto itself. Second, there is no lateral load, even the impact of a speeding aircraft, which is sufficient to move the center of gravity one hundred feet to the side such that it is not within the base footprint of the structure. Third, given the near free-fall collapse, there was insufficient time for portions to attain significant lateral velocity. To summarize all of these points, a 500,000 t structure has too much inertia to fall in any direction other than nearly straight down."

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html

The WTC was not a stack of "Jenga" blocks. If the builings had toppled over laterally, then I would be suspicious.