I've read most of this before. It sounds compelling until one considers that the people conducting tests and analyses included few actual construction engineers and a lot of highly-specialized engineers and scientists each of which analyzed/tested his/her own area of expertise. There are more complexities involved in the interactions of the various segments than are addressed in any report I have ever read. Basically, each component was proven to be irrefutably safe from collapse by an aircraft at the relatively low speed attained, despite the aircraft's size and fuel load.
Each separate component was perfectly safe and could only be destroyed by an explosion. That is true. What about the complex system represented by the sum of the components and their interaction? Building skyscrapers is a relatively new industry, and in the 1960s when the Towers were built, we had at most 80 years experience and data. Another structure built in the 1960s, the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis, collapsed suddenly on August 1, 2007. We had been building bridges for four thousand years at that point, and studying the effects of waves on structures for at least 1,500 years. Every individual component could be proven safe on its own, but the proof is in the puddles: the whole complex system collapsed catastrophically without warning.
I have learned over the years to approach complex systems with humility, not hubris. We rarely understand them well, and never completely. You may be correct about the Twin Towers, I don't know. I do know that Sportin' Life's great solo in Porgy and Bess has an important lesson to teach us:: It Ain't Necessarily So.
I've read most of this before. It sounds compelling until one considers that the people conducting tests and analyses included few actual construction engineers and a lot of highly-specialized engineers and scientists each of which analyzed/tested his/her own area of expertise. There are more complexities involved in the interactions of the various segments than are addressed in any report I have ever read. Basically, each component was proven to be irrefutably safe from collapse by an aircraft at the relatively low speed attained, despite the aircraft's size and fuel load.
Each separate component was perfectly safe and could only be destroyed by an explosion. That is true. What about the complex system represented by the sum of the components and their interaction? Building skyscrapers is a relatively new industry, and in the 1960s when the Towers were built, we had at most 80 years experience and data. Another structure built in the 1960s, the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis, collapsed suddenly on August 1, 2007. We had been building bridges for four thousand years at that point, and studying the effects of waves on structures for at least 1,500 years. Every individual component could be proven safe on its own, but the proof is in the puddles: the whole complex system collapsed catastrophically without warning.
I have learned over the years to approach complex systems with humility, not hubris. We rarely understand them well, and never completely. You may be correct about the Twin Towers, I don't know. I do know that Sportin' Life's great solo in Porgy and Bess has an important lesson to teach us:: It Ain't Necessarily So.