# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/41 "2011-08-24T22:10:02Z")
> [@Bennett\_Thomas](#): > > There are a number of theorists who say You’re wasting your life on this. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/42 "2011-08-24T23:52:18Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > [New Oliver Stone 9/11 Film Introduces ‘Single Plane’ Theory](http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-oliver-stone-911-film-introduces-single-plane,2017/): \ ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/43 "2011-08-25T00:00:34Z")
Back and to the left … _weeeepweeeepp_ … back and to the left …_weeeepweeeep_… back and to the left … -XT ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/44 "2011-08-25T00:13:42Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > I think a lot of this rests with eyewitness accounts. Go to YouTube and look at live coverage on NYC TV stations. You can hear people giving live reports saying, the building exploded. However on camera you can clearly see the second jet crashing into the WTC, but the people on the ground talking to the news are saying, there was no plane it was an explosion. > > Show you how good an eyewitness account. They didn’t see it all. of it I’m sure it seemed like an explosion to them. I also pointed out before how the best like explosion noises close to the ground were recorded **at the very end** of the collapse of the tower in the 9/11 documentary made by the French. Before that, the noise was like a concrete mixer full of rocks increasing in volume, and the firefighters began to run away as they understood that it was clearly a collapse going on. Now, if one does still believe in the explosive demolition, why make the explosives go at the very end of the collapse? :smack: Most likely the explosions were the bottom floors of the building crushing engines and other flammable things at the floor levels. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/45 "2011-08-25T00:16:26Z")
Or the windows explosively blowing out as the floors above collapsed on them…like an accordion being rapidly compressed. The air had to go somewhere. Personally, I think that’s the most likely explanation for the puffs of smoke called ‘squibs’ by the 9/11 CTers, and the sounds heard during the collapse. -XT ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/46 "2011-08-25T01:48:52Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > I’m just ‘asking questions’ here… So you admit you are JAQ-ing off? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/47 "2011-08-25T02:14:08Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > So you admit you are JAQ-ing off? :dubious: Yeah, but he’s doing it all ironic-like. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/48 "2011-08-25T02:37:35Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > In these threads there are only two answers to this question: “No” or “I watched a video of a demolition on YouTube and it looks identical, plus _this guy_ says it was definitely a controlled demolition.” You forgot the ever-popular “Watch this YouTube video I made showing the collapse of a comparable building I put together with tiddlywinks, tongue-depressors and glue” counter-argument. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/49 "2011-08-25T02:42:21Z")
Well, to be fair, a large part of the WTC construction did indeed use tongue-depressors. It was New York City in the seventies; corruption in the building trades was rampant. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/50 "2011-08-25T02:52:13Z")
_Tongue depressors?!_ They would be so lucky…it was mostly the skinnier popsicle sticks! ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/51 "2011-08-25T03:21:36Z")
_Tongue depressors?_ Have you ever dropped one? They don’t collapse straight down. They gently waft down gently and flutter as they do. So, unless there was some kind of controlled demolition, how do you explain the vertical drop of a structure made of tongue depressors? The bits and pieces should have spread all around Manhattan and taken several minutes to fall. How can “engineers” explain that? The most reasonable explanation is they coated the superstructure with glue and blew it up with silent explosives. Right? I’m just asking questions. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/52 "2011-08-25T03:26:59Z")
Tongue depressors are so last century… Nuts, Bolts and Washers, now that is a high tech model! ---
**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 25, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/53 "2011-08-25T03:46:28Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Nuts, Bolts and Washers, now that is a high tech model! [Cite](http://www.ioffer.com/i/1915-ERECTOR-Set-Print-AD-Skyscraper-Hello-Boys-Tower-56967576). ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/54 "2011-08-25T04:23:23Z")
I read through the Wikipedia [article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks) on 9/11 and the only thing I could find that was dubious was this sentence: > [@](#): > > Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/55 "2011-08-25T13:41:32Z")
Komzik, I don’t have an issue with that sentence. The Twin Towers and WTC7 collapsed because of structural failure, WTC3, 4, and 5 were destroyed by giant chunks of giant skyscrapers fall on top of them. ---
**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 25, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/56 "2011-08-25T15:13:19Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Now, if one does still believe in the explosive demolition, why make the explosives go at the very end of the collapse? :smack: Those were sound effects. Just a little delayed. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/57 "2011-08-25T16:31:04Z")
I think it’s safe to say that when buildings collapse, it’s pretty much always due to structural failure. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/58 "2011-08-25T16:53:48Z")
> [@Sarahfeena](#): > > I think it’s safe to say that when buildings collapse, it’s pretty much always due to structural failure. Yeah, this. Structural failure =/= just kind of fell down. The structure failed because a great big fucking plane hit it. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/59 "2011-08-25T17:19:22Z")
Or a great big fucking chunk of a larger building hit it because a great big fucking plane hit the larger building. My hockey-blog nitwits are at it again, this time with “explain how FIRE BURNED METAL for the first time in history! Huh? Fire can’t melt METAL!” I’m so tempted to recommend they hop back to the Iron Age and see if they can work it out for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861/60 "2011-08-26T00:37:13Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Or a great big fucking chunk of a larger building hit it because a great big fucking plane hit the larger building. > > My hockey-blog nitwits are at it again, this time with “explain how FIRE BURNED METAL for the first time in history! Huh? Fire can’t melt METAL!” I’m so tempted to recommend they hop back to the Iron Age and see if they can work it out for themselves. They said burn not melt. Metal can not [burn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdCsbZf1_Ng&feature=related). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-trade-center-questions-conspiracy-theories/593861.md?page=4)