On Wed, 19 Mar 2003, Tim May wrote: > I think the nearly perfectly vertical collapse of the WTC towers was > because of the pancaking of each floor into the floors below, as shown > in the videos. Whether removal of one support triggers pancaking or > toppling is more complicated than the blocks example, of course.
The collapse is self-aligning due to the delay occuring at each subsequent segment. I think you'll get a toppling only in small/extremely overengineered structures after at an explosion at the base.
