I am no expert, however, all tall buildings taper in somewhat. It's slight
and impossible to see without measuring, but it is true. There is usually
about 10 to 11 feet between floors. If the superstructure between a couple
of floors collapses (due to initial damage and then from the steel weakening
due to intense heat) the rest of the bottom part of the building will
collapse like paper under the impulse of the weight of 50-60 floors
accelerating down for the first 20 plus feet.
From: "Lasse Karlsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Is there anyone among you more technically (construction) egineered that
to a layman can explain why the buildings actually collapsed. I mean
constructionwise.
> Is the sheer weight, the pressure from the collapsed top floors falling
down on the ones below, enough to cause the total collapse?
> Is there anything in the way they are constructed that would have
prevented the buildings from falling over (like falling on surrounding
areas)?
>
> (However, we can be grateful for the amount of time it actually did
withstand before collapsing, which probably gave some thousands (?) of
people the chance to get out alive from there alive.)
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