Maybe i am wrong but :
It is the same way how in early days metal tools where made. One heats the metal, and it becomes softer and pliable. But it is not at it's melting point.
If you combine all situations it is not that unlikely. Further, for the beautiful collapses, you have to thank the architects and designers for that. Because the buildings where all build with the same building technique. Hence the similar form of collapse. But why the collapse of WTC7 ? Take a box of cardboard. A wooden shelf of the same size and a wooden pole. Stick the wooden pole in the ground. Then attach the shelf on top of the wooden pole. Then lay the cardboard box on the wooden shelf. You can see that the cardboard box has no problem and is not bending. Now take of the shelf and place the cardboard box on top of the wooden pole. Here you can directly see that the weight of the box is transferred to a tiny portion of the bottom of the cardboard box. The same applies for the building of WTC 7. Combine the impact of debris and the fires and the explosions and the wind pushing and as a result structural loss will happen and something will brake. The building techniques used created a very lightweight compared to size building. These same techniques where responsible for the "demolition" style collapses. In any case, i think with or with out prior knowledge of the architects and designers about what would happen if those buildings would collapse (speaking from their perspective during the design in 1960s-70s), they still deserve a big applause for the buildings coming down as they did without causing more casualties then already happened. Because with hindsight, what would you have preferred, the collapse as happened or a tilted building creating more havoc?
The whole point is that the building was not a solid form and neither was WTC 1 or WTC 2. It is a wire frame designed to carry many times its own weight if nothing is compromised. Now you can imagine with all what was happened combined, it is really not that strange that the buildings collapsed.
And that the fema rapport is such a failure, is just that people where appointed who where found before that more on the golf coarse then studying or doing science.
For example You think a pyramid could ever have been build with that same length while having the same footprint and office space ? Not going to happen. It would collapse under it's own weight.
No, there is only one real question : Did the Bush administration have prior knowledge about the attacks or not ?
This is my opinion :
"
If that was the case, i can assure you there was an estimation done about the damage. And probably the idea was that the planes would be shot down or in the worst case scenario the planes would fly into the buildings but with expectation that the building would not collapse because these building where designed not too. Now again, i may be wrong about this but it seemed those visco elastic dampers where added after the design and estimations where complete."
To think about the decision makers :
When you do not have to deal with every day reality, you loose affinity with all around you. And that is what happening with the super rich.
For example, during WW2, people and jeeps and trucks and tanks and planes and boats where given points. These points would resemble the amount of loss for each lost subject. For example, a human would be 10 points. A jeep would be 20 points. A truck 50 points. A tank 1000 points. and so on. Now the more points lost, the greater the financial loss. You can imagine that there where plans drawn where 100 men where send in to save a tank. Because men where cheaper. However, if you would say this directly you would have a problem and as such a point scheme was used.
I quote once again with respect to those visco elastic dampers :
http://www.designcommunity.com/discussion/7595.html
