Here's one for the 9/11 conspiracy fruit-n-whacks

[tcsenter]

A tanker carrying 8,000+ gallons of gasoline crashed and burned on a highway in Oakland. The insuing fire actually melted the freeway causing a massive collapse. IF you believe the rightwing media, that is....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070429/ap_on_re_us/highway_collapse_9

This is the first time in history that fire melts...uhh...CONCRETE? Of course there were explosive charges placed to cause the collapse. There are reports of people 'working' in the area, or appearing to legitimate work, in the days just before the collapse.

 

[MotF Bane]

Concrete is reinforced by steel. Steel melts. Plus, that bridge was damaged years ago by an earthquake.

 

[jpeyton]

Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

Made of the same stuff

 

[tcsenter]

Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

Correct! Jet fuel contains much more energy and skyscrapers are chock-full of stuff that burns (carpet, wall coverings, plastic and wood furniture, plastic computers, printers, and monitors, file cabinets full of paper, cardboard, trash containers, cubical partitions, et. al.). A steel reinforced concrete highway collapsed from an unconfined open-air fire where rapid-burning gasoline was the ONLY fuel.

You're right, its VASTLY more plausible and supportable that fire could cause catastrophic structural failure of a skyscraper than a concrete highway.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

Made of the same stuff

Actually the towers were all steel with no concrete, that is how they were able to build them so tall.
The highway overpass would have been the opposite, nearly all concrete with a little steel.

Concrete has incredible compression strength but very poor tensile strength. This is why after the Northridge earthquake and Katrina you saw all the highway spans down, but the piers nearly 100% intact.

 

[Jmman]

I guess the better question is why would some government entity go to such lengths to cause a freeway to collapse?

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

Made of the same stuff

Actually the towers were all steel with no concrete, that is how they were able to build them so tall.
The highway overpass would have been the opposite, nearly all concrete with a little steel.

Concrete has incredible compression strength but very poor tensile strength. This is why after the Northridge earthquake and Katrina you saw all the highway spans down, but the piers nearly 100% intact.

Uhh the entire shell of the WTC was concrete, and a major part of the structural integrity.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Gasoline != Jet Fuel

Skyscraper != Highway Overpass

Made of the same stuff

Actually the towers were all steel with no concrete, that is how they were able to build them so tall.
The highway overpass would have been the opposite, nearly all concrete with a little steel.

Concrete has incredible compression strength but very poor tensile strength. This is why after the Northridge earthquake and Katrina you saw all the highway spans down, but the piers nearly 100% intact.

Uhh the entire shell of the WTC was concrete, and a major part of the structural integrity.

From wikipedia link

The tube-frame was a major innovation in skyscraper design, allowing open floor plans and more rentable space. To solve the problem of wind sway or vibration in the construction of the towers, chief engineer Leslie Robertson took a then unusual approach ? instead of bracing the buildings corner-to-corner or using internal walls, the towers were essentially hollow steel tubes surrounding a strong central core. The 208 feet (63.4 m) wide facade was, in effect, a prefabricated steel lattice, with columns on 39 inch (100 cm) centers acting as wind bracing to resist all overturning forces; the central core took the majority of the gravity loads of the building. A very light, economical structure was built by keeping the wind bracing in the most efficient area, the outside surface of the building, thus not transferring the forces through the floor membrane to the core, as in most curtain-wall structures. The core supported the weight of the entire building and the outer shell containing 240 vertical steel columns called Vierendeel trusses around the outside of the building, which were bound to each other using ordinary steel trusses. In addition, 10,000 dampers were included in the structure. With a strong shell and core such as this, the exterior walls could be simply light steel and concrete. With the massive core and lightweight shell for structural integrity, Robertson created a tower that was extremely light for its size.

and from link

Also unique to the engineering design were its core and elevator system. The twin towers were the first supertall buildings designed without any masonry.