this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2026
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[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I bet the average person knows it can't melt steel beams.

[–] neidu4@piefed.social 36 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And the average person should also know that steel doesn't need to melt to lose a lot of it's load bearing capacity. At 500-600 Celsius, only 50% of steel strength remains.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Which, going right back around to jet engines, is why superalloys are a thing.

They aren't stronger or even more refractory than normal steel, just more expensive, but they don't soften at all until they're about to melt.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because no one takes shop class and bends some steel stock.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 12 hours ago

Even people who've never done it are vaguely aware of blacksmithing, though, right? This seems like more of a failure to apply everyday material properties to a skyscraper.

[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Plus there would be wind fanning those flames hard which could raise the temperature some.

But the other thing to consider is that the towers could have been built with substandard materials in the first place.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 12 hours ago

Plus aluminum, which planes are made of, does burn hot enough to melt steel beams. And concrete weakens in a fire as well.

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Plus all the mind control chemicals they use to make the chemtrails probably burnt really hot. /s

[–] neidu4@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

IIRC, the materials were fine, but the spray-on fireproofing left large patches uncovered. While not a direct cause, it certainly didn't help.

WTYP has a pretty good episode on the entire thing

[–] redhorsejacket@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

This just in: scientists have determined that a more direct cause for the towers falling than defective spray-on fireproofing may exist. Rumors have begun to circulate that the WTCs collapse may be attributed to the two aircraft which collided with them. Details at 6.

(I kid, I kid)

[–] neidu4@piefed.social 1 points 14 hours ago

Well, it would've collapsed either way, as you can see on the pictures during the fire that the metal is starting to buckle uniformly around the entire floor with the fire. But patches without insulation probably meant that it collapsed sooner than it could've.

Didn't help anyone trapped, so the net result is the same in that I fail to see how 30 minutes extra before it crumbled would've made any difference