If it's the one I think it is...

Post #38,371 by static 5/12/02 7:26:25 AM Reply	If it's the one I think it is... ... I saw it a month ago on (I think) [link\|http://www.sbs.com.au/\|SBS]. Good program. It showed the buildings had just one major design flaw: no-one thought about a plane full of jet fuel hitting a tower. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #38,386 by Ashton 5/12/02 5:54:46 PM Reply	Think they may indeed have' thought' of that - as is clearly the case in the design of containment domes for nuclear reactors ('Course too.. when they considered that possibility -- it was the 707 era.. etc.) Another unfortunate choice in this otherwise open-space saving design was - the "convenient" locations for the stairs! And as you saw in the film... via sheer Luck (as there was no way to find out real-time) the few who managed upper-floor escape: were yet able to thread a path depite the Problem. The calculations (just thermal!) re such a load of flammable material appear to have gotten at least a passing notice at design stage. Deemed insoluble, not only re the fail-point in temp of the steel, but also the sheer volume of water for an expanded "sprinkler" capacity. Needless to say - any cockamamie idea of "We'll Show THEM" via YAN monolith of 100 floors: were it Evil-Proof, there'd be 13.34% useable space and the rest: massive steel insulation, escape chutes and rocket-pods :-\ufffd ie I don't think so.. Ashton IM Pei LLoyd Wright
Post #38,419 by static 5/13/02 12:26:23 AM Reply	There is a way to do it. By which I mean a reasonable way, and not one involving the banning of flying objects. It involves thinking laterally and out on the edge of science. To wit: built it as a pyramid. Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #38,442 by Another Scott 5/13/02 8:19:54 AM Reply	Another way. Don't use steel. Seriously. Although it would be difficult and expensive, there are other materials that have much higher melting/softening points than steel. This thought reminds me of something I saw about a building fire years ago. It might have been on a TV show.... There was a tremendous fire in some old building somewhere. But the building didn't collapse because it was built with oak beams. The wood was chared but it retained its strength while steel I beams would have softened tremendously. Of course finding enough oak beams to build a 110 story building would be a problem (assuming oak would have the strength necessary and that may be a bad assumption). But if fire and collapse become primary safety considerations in large buildings, then other materials will have to be considered. Maybe titanium alloys or something.... Cheers, Scott.
Post #38,522 by Meerkat 5/13/02 8:30:13 PM Reply	Wonder if that helped the Pirelli building? Though it was only 25 storeys or so, it was made from concrete. Tallest concrete buildilng in the world, apparently. I don't know if >100 floors of concrete would be suitable, somehow. Another option would be to go down, not up. Which has its limitations, of course. Unless you actually want a nice swimming pool of (insert Doctor Evil voice here) liquid hot Magma... On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #38,462 by inthane-chan 5/13/02 11:43:12 AM Reply	Hey Wade... Were you the one I was talking to right after the WTC collapse where we were swapping ideas of how to use pyramidal structures to hold up a structure under a kinetic attack? InThane - Now running Ashton rev 2.0
Post #38,573 by static 5/14/02 7:14:48 AM Reply	Not me. But you'll be amused how I thought of it. I was originally going to say something along the lines of leveraging space elevator technology, but then I remembered several scenes from Kim Robinson's Mars trilogy with the space tether. Then I recalled huge pyramidal structures in Shadowrun - arcologies, actually, with hundreds of levels. And in the original source material, in Seattle. :-) Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #38,714 by inthane-chan 5/14/02 8:53:26 PM Reply	Amusing. I don't know who it was I was chatting with, but we came up with the same idea, except without harkening back to Shadowrun ideology... :) InThane - Now running Ashton rev 2.0

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