Reply #98: The rake on rake analogy is obvious

[petgoat]

The Bazant and Zhou paper that is the intellectual basis of NIST's
take on the collapse claims that the top of WTC1 (15 floors) fell
3.7 meters and imposed an irresistable dynamic load on the structure
below.

This is obviously absurd because the assumption that 287 columns
simultaneously vaporized so that 15 floors could fall as a unit
is an obvious impossibility.

But think of it. Even if this did happen, Bazant and Zhou assume that
all 287 columns impact the lower 287 columns with perfect alignment.
That too is impossible.

Any misalignment in space or any dis-synchronism in time makes an
asymmetrical collapse.

Misalignment in space, as Anders Bjoerkman points out, means that
broken columns start punching through floors instead of pounding
on columns. Slidsing frictions are introduced, as shown in the drawing
above, and as shown in the rake analogy.

AZ, your one-liner FUD reports are silly. Give it up, man. Come to the
light!