daws101
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #141
The first is that when an object is raised to a height, it gains what is known as gravitational potential energy. As Loizeaux says: “Every nail that was carried up in the pocket of some construction worker is potential energy that’s at our disposal, …” In terms of physics the potential energy is calculated by the formula
E = mgh
E is the energy, m is the mass (of the nail or any other object), g the acceleration due to gravity, and h the height that the object is raised. If m is in kilograms, g in metres per second per second, and h in metres, then E is measured in a unit called Joules. When the Loizeaux family demolish a building in an implosion they are liberating this stored potential energy as kinetic energy – the energy of movement. This energy is calculated by a different formula:
E = ½ mv2
In this case the kinetic energy in Joules is equal to half the mass of the moving object times the velocity squared. When the collapsing building hits the ground the kinetic energy is converted into other forms, such as fracture energy (energy required to break, for example, concrete into rubble), sound energy, and heat energy. To give some pertinent examples, the gravitational potential energy (mgh) of one of the Twin Tower has been estimated at 1.139 x 1012 Joules. This is roughly 1 followed by 12 noughts or a billion times a billion Joules (an American trillion). To put that in perspective, it is roughly the same energy as 272 tons of TNT exploding, or enough to melt one thousand metric tonnes of steel. The impact of the faster of the two planes released kinetic energy (½ mv2) roughly equal to 4 x 1009 Joules, or four thousand million Joules. This is enough to melt approximately 4 metric tonnes of steel.
Of course, the energy released by the collapse of the Towers or the impacts of the plane did not go into melting tonnes of steel (though a small fraction may have). The point here is to understand the colossal energies involved in the WTC disaster, and how they are estimated in physics. Also vital to understand is the law of conservation of energy, which requires that all the energy that disappears in one form must appear in an other form or forms.
We will see that a key debate in the IF vs. CD theory is as to whether there was enough gravitation potential energy (mgh energy) in the buildings to account for the pulverisation of them into such fine dust and rubble. It is also helpful to be able to compare the mgh energy of the buildings to any proposed energy that the CD theorists believe to have come from explosives.
The additional scientific concept that needs to be introduced is more nebulous, but critical: it is complexity theory (also broadly called chaos theory). While pure physics (of the kind that Newton’s revolution in science introduced to the world) deals with very simple systems, the real world is not just a bit more complicated: it is orders of magnitude more complicated. Newton was able to make his stunning breakthrough in astronomy (in brief, the inverse square law of gravitation) because he focussed on two bodies at a time, i.e. the sun and any given planet, or a planet and its moon. It is well known in physics that the introduction even of a third body to the problem makes the mathematics almost intractable. If we scale up the problem to a natural event like the collapse of the Twin Towers, then we are dealing with a vast number of bodies interacting with each other. Chaos theory tells us a very sobering fact about a complex system like this: minute variations in the input factors for a complex system lead to wildly varying outcomes. This is why explosive demolition is part science, but also part art. Like all experts in real-world events, implosionists are masters of their total body of experience, constituting what influential writer Donald Schon has called ‘tacit knowledge.’ When CD theorists cite as evidence that ‘no steel-framed building has ever collapsed before as a result of fire’ they are ignoring complexity theory, which requires only that small differences in the original parameters result in a novel outcome. The question we shall explore is whether the impact of a passenger jet into a steel-framed building makes that ‘small’ difference or not.
Good Science and 9-11 Demolition Theories
E = mgh
E is the energy, m is the mass (of the nail or any other object), g the acceleration due to gravity, and h the height that the object is raised. If m is in kilograms, g in metres per second per second, and h in metres, then E is measured in a unit called Joules. When the Loizeaux family demolish a building in an implosion they are liberating this stored potential energy as kinetic energy – the energy of movement. This energy is calculated by a different formula:
E = ½ mv2
In this case the kinetic energy in Joules is equal to half the mass of the moving object times the velocity squared. When the collapsing building hits the ground the kinetic energy is converted into other forms, such as fracture energy (energy required to break, for example, concrete into rubble), sound energy, and heat energy. To give some pertinent examples, the gravitational potential energy (mgh) of one of the Twin Tower has been estimated at 1.139 x 1012 Joules. This is roughly 1 followed by 12 noughts or a billion times a billion Joules (an American trillion). To put that in perspective, it is roughly the same energy as 272 tons of TNT exploding, or enough to melt one thousand metric tonnes of steel. The impact of the faster of the two planes released kinetic energy (½ mv2) roughly equal to 4 x 1009 Joules, or four thousand million Joules. This is enough to melt approximately 4 metric tonnes of steel.
Of course, the energy released by the collapse of the Towers or the impacts of the plane did not go into melting tonnes of steel (though a small fraction may have). The point here is to understand the colossal energies involved in the WTC disaster, and how they are estimated in physics. Also vital to understand is the law of conservation of energy, which requires that all the energy that disappears in one form must appear in an other form or forms.
We will see that a key debate in the IF vs. CD theory is as to whether there was enough gravitation potential energy (mgh energy) in the buildings to account for the pulverisation of them into such fine dust and rubble. It is also helpful to be able to compare the mgh energy of the buildings to any proposed energy that the CD theorists believe to have come from explosives.
The additional scientific concept that needs to be introduced is more nebulous, but critical: it is complexity theory (also broadly called chaos theory). While pure physics (of the kind that Newton’s revolution in science introduced to the world) deals with very simple systems, the real world is not just a bit more complicated: it is orders of magnitude more complicated. Newton was able to make his stunning breakthrough in astronomy (in brief, the inverse square law of gravitation) because he focussed on two bodies at a time, i.e. the sun and any given planet, or a planet and its moon. It is well known in physics that the introduction even of a third body to the problem makes the mathematics almost intractable. If we scale up the problem to a natural event like the collapse of the Twin Towers, then we are dealing with a vast number of bodies interacting with each other. Chaos theory tells us a very sobering fact about a complex system like this: minute variations in the input factors for a complex system lead to wildly varying outcomes. This is why explosive demolition is part science, but also part art. Like all experts in real-world events, implosionists are masters of their total body of experience, constituting what influential writer Donald Schon has called ‘tacit knowledge.’ When CD theorists cite as evidence that ‘no steel-framed building has ever collapsed before as a result of fire’ they are ignoring complexity theory, which requires only that small differences in the original parameters result in a novel outcome. The question we shall explore is whether the impact of a passenger jet into a steel-framed building makes that ‘small’ difference or not.
Good Science and 9-11 Demolition Theories
