9/11: Explosive Evidence Experts Speak Out

An Architect’s Guide

Course Number: AE911-ESO-90
1 LU/HSW

On-demand 90-minute documentary film containing one hour of HSW educational content (the first 60 minutes)

To confirm your participation and earn learning units, you must take the short online quiz after you view the video.

Course Description:

Never before has a steel-framed high-rise collapsed from fire. Why, then, did three such buildings collapse on September 11, 2001?

“9/11: Explosive Evidence — Experts Speak Out” features 40 experts in high-rise architecture, structural engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, physics, explosives, and controlled demolition who share their professional assessment of the destruction of the three World Trade Center high-rises on 9/11.

The 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7) was not struck by an airplane. It had fires that were similar to those that have occurred previously in high-rise buildings. Yet it fell symmetrically into its own footprint in the manner of a typical controlled demolition. Similarly, the destruction of the Twin Towers exhibited most of the features of controlled demolition, with the exception that it did not start from the base of each tower.

According to the reports issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the collapse of WTC 7 was caused by normal office fires, while the collapse of the Twin Towers resulted from the combined effects of the airplane impact damage and ensuing fires.

Is NIST’s explanation for these unprecedented structural failures valid? Decide for yourself after watching this informative 90-minute documentary. Using the information discussed, you will be able to evaluate which of the two hypotheses — fire-induced failure or controlled demolition — is more consistent with the evidence.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the characteristics of building fires and the aspects of high-rise design that contribute to make fire-induced failure in steel-framed high-rise buildings a rare occurrence.
  2. Recognize the distinct features associated with fire-induced failure and the distinct features associated with the procedure of controlled demolition.
  3. Describe step-by-step the series of structural failures that the National Institute of Standards and Technology found to be the most likely cause of the collapse of World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7.
  4. Analyze the physical evidence and the dynamics of the collapse of the Twin Towers and Building 7 according to how consistent they are with the competing hypotheses of fire-induced failure and controlled demolition.

 

 

Watch the Documentary

 

 

Quiz

 

 

Course Evaluation



 

 

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