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And you being a firefighter should know jet fuel will not burn hot enough to melt a 6 inch thick I beam. Nor will it melt a jet engine to a pile of molten metal. Jet fuel is nothing but diesel but you already knew that right ?
As is typical of folks who do not have a scientific background, the question is purely one of temperatures. But anyone with any knowledge of the science of combustion and melting knows that it is much more complicated than that.
If it were purely a matter of temperature, then as soon as the fire reached its maximum temperature, the steel would have melted, and the buildings would have collapsed -- all in a matter of seconds.
But it didn't take seconds, did it? It took nearly an hour before the first building fell. Why is that?
Because the problem isn't one of pure temperature, it is one of HEAT CAPACITY and THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY.
"Heat capacity (usually denoted by a capital C, often with subscripts) is a measurable physical quantity that characterizes the ability of a body to store heat as it changes in temperature. It is defined as the rate of change of temperature as heat is added to a body at the given conditions and state of the body (foremost its temperature). In the International System of Units, heat capacity is expressed in units of joules per kelvin. It is termed an "extensive quantity" because it is sensitive to the size of the object (for example, a bathtub of water has a greater heat capacity than a cup of water). Dividing heat capacity by the body's mass yields a specific heat capacity (also called more properly "mass-specific heat capacity" or more loosely "specific heat"), which is an "intensive quantity," meaning it is no longer dependent on amount of material, and is now more dependent on the type of material, as well as the physical conditions of heating."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capaci…
"In physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the intensive property of a material that indicates its ability to conduct heat.
It is defined as the quantity of heat, Q, transmitted in time t through a thickness L, in a direction normal to a surface of area A, due to a temperature difference ΔT, under steady state conditions and when the heat transfer is dependent only on the temperature gradient.
Thermal conductivity = heat flow rate × distance / (area × temperature difference) "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_con…
So, the poroblem here is not strictly one of temperature, but how much heat was being pumped into the steel, versus how quickly it could conduct that heat to other areas to cool itself down. If the steel conducts heat away from the fire faster than it is being pumped into the steel, the steel remains rigid. If heat is pumped into the steel faster than it can be conducted away, the temperature of the steel RISES ABOVE THE TEMPERATURE OF THE FIRE, eventually reaching the plastic deformation (softening) temperature. At that point, the steel girders deform, and the rest is purely momemtum (mass times velocity).
So, get off the bulls**t of the temperatures of the system, and look into the physics. The supporting girders did not need to melt (liquify) to cause the buildings to collapse, they just needed to soften enough to deform and start the collapse.
No explosives are required, no CIA or FBI involvement, no mysterious conspiracies from the Federal government, nothing.
Build a freakin' bridge and get over it, losers. The freakin' al-Qaeda terrorists knew their engineering far better than any of you idiots out there, and used that knowledge to bring down the towers. They have admitted it. So cut the cr*p and get on with life!
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