1)  A Ph.D in particle physics, whether theoretical or experimental, does not one a metallurgist make.

2)  CERN doesn’t do psych analyses of people who work there.  If they did, lots of good scientists would be let go.

3)  Lots of good scientists who are experts in their own field have strong opinions about other fields about which they know nothing.  Just like every other human.

Also, re: the truthers: Occam’s Razor. If this was the US government, you just want to scare the crap out of the people, so collapsing the towers isn’t necessarily what you want to do. So, the simplest way to do it is, you have the CIA call up your good old friends at Al-Qaeda, and pay them to fly some planes into the towers.

THAT is a conspiracy that begins to make sense. (Not saying it is the case, but it’s not absurd like the theories the Truthers come up with.)

All the truthers seem to have the same exact number of “likes” on their comments.  It’s almost like some sort of conspiracy.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  Actually, I could live with that.  It’s the ones who flag every comment with which they disagree that are the problem.

If the planes involved in the 9/11 attacks performed any maneuvers that an unmodified 757 should not have been capable of doing, don’t you think that thousands of pilots and aircraft engineers would have brought that to the public’s attention?

I fear for our country. All the “truther” books and tapes and lecture circuit stuff about 9/11 is happening largely because people have realized that this country contains so many gullible, hysterical fools that you can get rich off of selling them stuff. It started with the Y2K bug nuttiness; that proved that panic sells. From now on, nothing will ever happen in this country without a huge bunch of people rushing to whip up hysteria over it so they can make a buck from it. Every tragedy, every serious accident, will be followed by a wave of idiocy claiming that is the result of some deep, dark evil plot.

What the hell. Maybe we can take consolation in the idea that selling more books is good for the economy.

I remember that when the Twin Towers were being designed, engineers calculated that without damping, the upper floors could be affected by winds enough to sway through an arc as much as 10 feet – enough to cause sea sickness. If the dampers were no longer functional, then wind would cause the towers to sway, and that would add torquing to the forces acting on supports which were being softened by the fire.

Why have so few people ever cottoned onto this potentially vital clue?

Somebody needs a bit more tinfoil in their hat.

What is impossible is for even a highly trained pilot to make the turns they did. The planes are engineered to not pull those G-forces.

There are a lot of people out there who are more familiar with the capabilities of a 757 than either you or me. Why haven’t thousands of pilots and aircraft engineers come forward to explain that the 9/11 attacks were logistically impossible?

That, however, is not the story most Truthers are pitching. Most believe there was some kind of controlled demolition, which in addition to being pretty much logistically impossible to pull off doesn’t even make logical sense. Why run a false flag operation to make it appear that the buildings were destroyed by something other than what actually took them down? Why not just bomb the buildings and blame it on terrorists?

Ask questions, fine. Just try to ask ones that make some sense, and take the time to find out if reputable people have already answered them.

BTW, you don’t need molten aluminum — or aluminum at all — to start a thermite reaction.  (Non-molten aluminum powder can be used, and presumably under the right conditions, aluminum splinters too.)  There are magnesium, copper, and chromium thermite reactions as well, and according to wikipedia even Teflon (!) plus aluminum or magnesium can undergo one of these types of reactions.  What matters isn’t the material or its state but the activation energy; for an aluminum/ferrous thermite reaction this can, according to the internet, be provided by igniting magnesium, or even with a propane torch. 

Wikipedia also mentions that if the reactants are pre-heated the thermite can explode instead of simply melting.  So if I can trust the information on the wikipedia page, then most of the objections to the thermite theory explored so far on this thread aren’t very effective.

Agree with mdhatter03, there is no reason not to keep asking questions about this.   If the theory really is ludicrous then you should be able to demonstrate that it’s ludicrous.  If it’s not, then it’s worth talking about.

I can tell, because every time I ask one, people refuse to accept or acknowledge them. There is the problem of kooks who are looking for some vast conspiracy who have no first hand knowledge of the situations and bad critical thinking skills.

But there are also world class people putting their careers on the line asking these questions.

Don’t be the NYT, only reporting on the kooky hippies in order to confirm your bias. Let people ask, don’t challenge them so much, let the institutions that they are seeking the information from defend themselves. 

Again, I am not a conspiracy theorist. I am, however, reticent to believe a thing when the best argument I have heard to the contrary is “you don’t want to be seen as a kook, do you?”

It’s funny. I don’t actually believe the conspiracy happened. But I know there is room for it to have happened. Nothing I have seen proves anything in either direction.

So I say keep asking questions.

Software is why. Any of the hijackers sopftware engineers? They’d need one per plane. Just saying.

I recommend you look into the capabilities of the 757. A good (late) friend of mine flew them in the 80′s and 90′s. First fly by wire jetliner.  I recall him marveling at being brought in for a landing by the computers, once he hit the button that turned control over to the computers on the ground, and amazed that NORAD could take control of the airplane in case of a hijacking or crew incapacitation.  Again, all he had to do was press a button to give them control…. that’s when the planes can pull more than 1.5G.

Don;t berate people for asking good questions. You say it;s a dumb question. I say I have the flight manuals.