Each of the images below depicts a cross-section of one of the Twin Towers, using a 512x512 pixel image as a scale basis for the creation of the 47 core columns at the center of each tower.
These models were created in Second Life.
First, FEMA 403 fig. 2-2, (Representative structural framing plan, upper floors), in which the core columns are depicted by red dots.
These dots are identical in size and placement to the depiction of core columns in fig. 2-1 (a structural framing plan representative of an upper floor in the towers).
Then, the anonymously leaked architectural blueprints of the North Tower gave a more realistic look at the dimensions of the core columns, at various elevations in the Towers. Here the columns' dimensions at the 66th floor are shown.
The cores' columns were massive, as thick as 52"x22" in the lower floors, and most of the perimeter columns in each core maintained these approximate dimensions throughout the lower two-thirds of both towers.
Lastly, the columns from the 33rd floor are juxtaposed with the illustration from FEMA, to show just how inaccurate and misleading the FEMA illustration is.
The core's perimeter columns, in particular, were roughly 300% more massive than the red dots in FEMA fig. 2-2 would lead you to believe.
Replacing misrepresentation with omission, the 9/11 Commission said that
"(t)he interior core of the buildings was a hollow steel shaft..."
(9/11 Commission Report Notes, Chap. 9, Note 1),
with no mention whatsoever of these 47 core columns.
Debunking911, one of dozens of portals for those who choose to promote and defend the government's explanation(s) for the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, includes an illustration used in NOVA's 2002 presentation "Why the Towers Fell", which also chooses to ignore the core columns.
This illustration includes a note that "...this isn't here to show how many stick figures someone can create." - failing to note that the illustration does in fact show 236 of the 240 perimeter columns (all but the four corner columns), more than 80% of all the 'stick figures' which would represent the structural design of the World Trade Center. Basically everything but the core columns, which have been replaced with large horizontal plates.
But of course the failure of NOVA to represent the core columns, like the failure of the 9/11 Commission to acknowledge their existence, helps to reinforce the nebulous proposition that the towers both collapsed under their own weight, simply because the structural supports of a few upper floors were weakened by localized fires and localized fireproofing displacement.
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The development of this project would not have been possible without 911research.com, an invaluable resource for anyone interested in ACTUAL 9/11 RESEARCH, rather than conjecture, hyperbole, and subterfuge.
