Not that it’ll do any damned good, of course, but keep these images on tap next time you’re accosted by a “Truther.”
One of the “arguements” used by these sad, deluded loons (or outright charlatans) is that the World Trade Center building collapses on 9-11 had to be the result of thermite charges planted inside the buildings in advance, because “fire doesn’t melt steel” and similar rubbish. Well, granted. Burning paper and plastic are unlikely to cause steel to liquify. But consider the photos below of the Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL. The church went up in flames back in 2007. The Church was a relatively standard steel-frame “warehouse” sort of structure…. almost certainly not filled with napalm, hydrogen, thermite or liquid oxygen. Just the usual wooden pews, tapestries, wood panelling, that sort of thing. See photos of the fire HERE.
The end result of the fire was that the steel structure was left standing, but pretty much everything else was burned away. Take a good look at the aftermath photos, such as HERE and HERE. You know what I see? I see a steel structure, lightly loaded (the beams forming the roof only had to support the roof, obviously, not 20 stories of skyscraper above), and exposed to a relatively brief fire… and sagging under their own weight. No, the steel didn’t melt. But it sure as hell softened. It softened enough that the weight of nothing more than the steel beam caused that steel beam to sag significantly.
Now, imagine what would have happened to this structure had it been fed with jet fuel and had a million pounds of skyscrap on top of it. Does fire need to melt steel for a building to collapse… especially if that building had just been structurally damaged by a jetliner?
Next time you run into a pack of these genetic defectives, mock them mercilessly. If you make them cry, you win extra points (but only if they’re “male,” as making girls cry is dishonorable).
5 Responses to “Something “Truthers” would rather you didn’t see”
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The 9/11 attacks were scarcely a year passed when I had to do a report on them in my Solid Mechanics class. It was pretty easy to look up the strength of structural steel in a reference book and see how weak it got at the temperatures expected in a kerosene fire. A first-order estimate of the stresses placed on the heated beams showed that the towers didn’t stand a chance.
Now riddle me this, Batman: if a sophomore engineering student can find it so easy to explain the collapse of the WTC, why does the dipshittery of Rosie O’Donnell, Steven Jones & Charlie Sheen persist? It’s a dogmatic desire to believe in spite of evidence, rather than because of evidence.
>why does the dipshittery of Rosie O’Donnell, Steven Jones & Charlie Sheen persist?
As those types are so fond of saying… “follow the money.” Saying “the facts are mundane” doesn’t rake in the cash. Saying “OMG! Everything you thought you knew is a lie!” sells books and DVDs. Additionally, Bush Derangement Syndrome found itself a home in the Truther moverment. Don’t like the idea of tax cuts for the rich? Well, hell, the only people who do are the kind who run evil conspiracies behind the scene!
Great post Scott, as was your earlier Anti-Vaxxer one.
However, likelihood of convincing one ‘Truther’ to change their deluded minds – Zero.
I once got into an argument with a Truther in the letters page of Japan’s main English Newspaper, The Daily Yomiuri. He was comparing a Jet fire at Naha – where the plane was left near intact – with the ‘evaporation’ of the 9-11 planes.
I pointed out K.E and fuel load realities, his response:
“Kinetic Energy is simply Nonfatal Heat Energy”
My educational reply to this was not published by the paper. He was an important pottery artist too – should have known something about heat what with working with kilns. Idiot!!!
You wanna hear friggin’ hilarious, there’s a guy who posts on Key Pub. who use to have “ANSYS” for his avatar and is supposedly a stress guy- and he’s convinced 9/11 was pulled off by the Bush administration because jet fuel can’t melt steel. Didn’t matter how much I explained how wrong he was and why his answer was always “yeah but”. There is just no help for some.
“There is just no help for some.”
So true. The sad thing is that all these ‘conspiracies’ are actually great opportunities to learn some science ‘n’ engineering – but most just want to hear about high-fiving Mossad agents and ‘Big Pharma’…