# World Trade Center \[questions/conspiracy theories\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 24, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861 "2011-08-24T03:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bennett\_Thomas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c37758/32.png) [@Bennett\_Thomas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bennett_Thomas)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/1 "2011-08-24T03:45:49Z")
There are a number of theorists who say the destruction of the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition, claiming that the planes crashing into them wouldn’t make the buildings collapse into themselves and only a controlled demolition would do that. The “smoking gun”, they say, is Building #7, which collapsed upon itself just like the twin towers but wasn’t hit by a plane at all. And why did the South Tower collapse before the North tower did even though the North Tower was hit first? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/2 "2011-08-24T04:02:07Z")
Not this again. Either start using the “Search” function to find the eighty bazillion threads already done on the subject, or just go away. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/3 "2011-08-24T04:07:19Z")
You don’t even need to search the SDMB for it. There are entire websites about this. A good example is [www.debunking911.com](http://www.debunking911.com). ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/4 "2011-08-24T04:12:11Z")
Christ, is it the 4th Tuesday of the month already? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/5 "2011-08-24T04:12:59Z")
[JAQ-off](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/JAQing_off) aisle three! [_Popular Mechanics_ did a good article debunking this crap.](http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/1227842) [Debunking 9/11 looks like a good clearing house as well.](http://www.debunking911.com/) (No, this stuff will never die, or at least not while anyone alive now is still living. The best we can do is keep the debunking resources going just as long, if not longer.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/6 "2011-08-24T04:16:44Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Christ, is it the 4th Tuesday of the month already? Brace yourself. We’re in for two months of maudlin programming and sad-eyed commentators telling us how we’re supposed to feel. I can handle my own emotions, thankyouverymuch. I don’t need ‘closure’ shoved down my gullet. . ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/7 "2011-08-24T05:14:32Z")
> [@Bennett\_Thomas](#): > > There are a number of theorists who say the destruction of the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition, claiming that the planes crashing into them wouldn’t make the buildings collapse into themselves and only a controlled demolition would do that. You seem to acknowledge that the buildings were actually hit by planes. But in your world they collapsed only due to “controlled demolition”? The hundred tons of fast-moving metal, the thousands of litres of burning jet fuel, had no effect? The demolition explosions were somehow split-second timed to occur at precisely the instant the planes hit? > [@](#): > > And why did the South Tower collapse before the North tower did even though the North Tower was hit first? You tell me: if it was all pre-planned wouldn’t they have ensured that it happened in a nice logical sequence like that? Isn’t the fact that it was messy an indicator that it was more like how such things actually happen in the real world? And how do you account for ObL admitting to planning and executing the attacks, but nevertheless being surprised about the building collapses? ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/8 "2011-08-24T06:34:46Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > You seem to acknowledge that the buildings were actually hit by planes. But in your world they collapsed only due to “controlled demolition”? The hundred tons of fast-moving metal, the thousands of litres of burning jet fuel, had no effect? The demolition explosions were somehow split-second timed to occur at precisely the instant the planes hit? Just to play devils advocate for a minute, obviously the charges would have gone off when the buildings came down, not when they were hit by aeroplanes. And number seven obviously wasn’t hit by an aeroplane. > [@](#): > > You tell me: if it was all pre-planned wouldn’t they have ensured that it happened in a nice logical sequence like that? Isn’t the fact that it was messy an indicator that it was more like how such things actually happen in the real world? > > And how do you account for ObL admitting to planning and executing the attacks, but nevertheless being surprised about the building collapses? Well, to play devil’s advocate again for a minute, he’s Osama bin Laden. To him it’s not an admission, it’s a claim. It’s not like confessing to the police about firebombing an orphanage, it’s more along the lines of “look how badass I am”. But obviously that’s to discount those conspiracy theories which make Osama a CIA operative since his days with the anti-Soviet mujahideen. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/9 "2011-08-24T06:52:40Z")
> [@Bennett\_Thomas](#): > > There are a number of theorists who say the destruction of the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition, claiming that the planes crashing into them wouldn’t make the buildings collapse into themselves and only a controlled demolition would do that. “Theorist” isn’t the word I’d use. > [@](#): > > The “smoking gun”, they say, is Building #7, which collapsed upon itself just like the twin towers but wasn’t hit by a plane at all. Building 7–and in fact several other structures–were hit and damaged by debris from the Twin Towers since–_pace_ the “theorists”–the Twin Towers did _not_ magically and neatly fall downward and inward like a controlled demolition. They fell more or less down, instead of toppling over like trees at the hands of a lumberjack, because it’s simply physically impossible for multi-hundred-thousand-ton 1300-foot-high hollow steel and concrete structures to collapse or topple in any other way. (Pre-September 11 I don’t think I really realized that–I’d never thought about it much–and those Discovery Channel documentaries about demolitions experts always kind of imply it’s a practically magical process to get buildings to do that. In fact, while the demolitions guys do have to do a lot of careful planning and work to prevent stuff like what happened to WTC 7, fundamentally they’re just taking advantage of the laws of physics.) > [@](#): > > And why did the South Tower collapse before the North tower did even though the North Tower was hit first? The South Tower was hit lower down than the North Tower. The damaged area was under more stress, as it had more weight of building on top of it than in the North Tower; the South Tower thus failed more quickly than the North Tower. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/10 "2011-08-24T07:11:47Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > The South Tower was hit lower down than the North Tower. The damaged area was under more stress, as it had more weight of building on top of it than in the North Tower; the South Tower thus failed more quickly than the North Tower. Actually, looking into it more, it appears that the difference in the _way_ the towers were hit was more of a factor. From the [National Institute of Standards and Technology](http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/wtc_about.cfm): > [@](#): > > WTC2 collapsed more quickly than WTC 1 because there was more aircraft damage to the building core, including one of the heavily loaded corner columns, and there were early and persistent fires on the east side of the building, where the aircraft had extensively dislodged insulation from the structural steel. United Airlines Flight 175, in addition to hitting the South Tower lower down, kind of clipped the corner, where American Airlines 11 hit both higher up and also more squarely in the center of the building. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/11 "2011-08-24T07:51:37Z")
Lee Harvey Oswald blew up the World Trade Center. Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/12 "2011-08-24T07:54:22Z")
**Little Nemo** , surely you’re not still clinging to the utterly debunked “single plane” theory? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/13 "2011-08-24T09:25:01Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > **Little Nemo** , surely you’re not still clinging to the utterly debunked “single plane” theory? He is. And that plane took off from the grassy knoll. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/14 "2011-08-24T10:37:17Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > He is. And that plane took off from the grassy knoll. On a treadmill? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/15 "2011-08-24T11:51:35Z")
The single plane WAS equipped with a 1920s-style death ray, though, was it not? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/16 "2011-08-24T12:35:52Z")
Moved to Great Debates. You don’t have to follow GQ rules in this thread any more. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/17 "2011-08-24T12:51:27Z")
> [@Bennett\_Thomas](#): > > There are a number of theorists who say the destruction of the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition, claiming that the planes crashing into them wouldn’t make the buildings collapse into themselves and only a controlled demolition would do that. The “smoking gun”, they say, is Building #7, which collapsed upon itself just like the twin towers but wasn’t hit by a plane at all. And why did the South Tower collapse before the North tower did even though the North Tower was hit first? There are people who think that what we all saw was simply CGI. Point being, people are nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/18 "2011-08-24T13:03:07Z")
There are also a number of theorists who think the government is stealing their thoughts through their TeeVee sets. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/19 "2011-08-24T13:39:37Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > “Theorist” isn’t the word I’d use. The word I’d use is “YouTuber.” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/20 "2011-08-24T13:52:16Z")
> [@Bennett\_Thomas](#): > > There are a number of theorists… Not theorists in the scientific sense, but people who are ignorant of how physics works and are proclaiming their ignorance loudly so everyone can hear. Truth and reality take a back seat to yellling. > [@](#): > > … who say the destruction of the World Trade Center was a controlled demolition, without a bit of evidence that would hold up in a scientific enquiry. It’s all fantasy. It’s driven by those whose world is made from video games. > [@](#): > > … claiming that the planes crashing into them wouldn’t make the buildings collapse into themselves… Physics says they can and did. > [@](#): > > … and only a controlled demolition would do that. No. In fact, a controlled demolition – and no good evidence has been found to substantiate that – would do a much cleaner job that what we saw. > [@](#): > > The “smoking gun”, they say, is Building #7, which collapsed upon itself just like the twin towers but wasn’t hit by a plane at all. But it was hit by a shitload of flaming debris and no firefighting was attempted for 7 hours, when it collapsed exactly as physics, chemistry and the firefighters expected. > [@](#): > > And why did the South Tower collapse before the North tower did even though the North Tower was hit first? Why is that important? Do all fires burn at exactly the same rate? Were the conditions identical? Did the planes hit at exactly the same location on the buildings? Did they carry exactly the same fuel? Did they fly at exactly the same rate? What possible conspiracy can you build from the collapse sequence? No mystery here, just nonsense and ignorance enhanced by YouTube. _They want to believe._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861.md?page=2)