Tony Szamboti
Registered Senior Member
:roflmao: the train analogy was to show that even in a controlled emergence stop, straight line, halting the momentum of weight take distance, a 33,000 tons train is approximately the weight of the small section of south WTC tower, and i used the speed posted of 19 mph.
I then checked with a friend of mine a Licensed Operating Engineer, as to how long it would take him to bring his train to a full stop under those conditions, He informed me that that would take at least a mile on dry track.
So even giving the resistance, of the stationary floor at the event front of the collapse, there wasn't enough distance for the resistance of the floors to stop the collapse.
It is lunchtime here and I couldn't help responding to this train analogy you are trying to make. The train is attempting to stop by friction alone and only due to the small surface area of it's wheels. It isn't analogous at all to the upper block of the tower other than weight.
If you insist on using a train, a better analogy would be to have the 33,000 ton train collide with a stationary and anchored 250,000 ton train. The 33,000 ton train would be moving at about 18.5 MPH when they collide, which is akin to the 27 ft./sec velocity the upper block of the tower would have had after a one story fall.
What does your intuition tell you will happen here?