I am not a physicist nor architect nor blah, blah. This happened when I was in college, the day we went back to school the pyhiscs professor (who was a MAJOR conspiracy theorists with JFK, Area 51 and all that) had the class do some experienments and blah blah blah... Anywyas:

A building of that size CANNOT fall over sideways unless certain criteria are met. One plane inpacting at the angle it did will not suffice.

The sheer weight being put on the lower levels from the crash and the subsequent relief of that weight through missing corner of the building would cause steel, cement, glass etc to buckle and fall straight down.

The only way a building would topple over onto it's side is if ENOUGH of a COMPLETE side was missing. The way the jet impacted the building, it did not sheer enough materials to make this scenario likely.


Hope that makes sense..... my two cents.

I did have fun playing with the lincoln blocks and playdough in that class though... HAHA.


Liken it to cutting a large tree. Depending on the V cut angle, the tree will fall straight down or to the side. If the V cut is big enough (enough mass missing) you can push it in the direction you want it to fall. If the V cut is smaller, it will likely snap (due to the pressure on the remaining stalk) and fall striaght down and then to the side since it cannot crumble such as cement, etc.... How's that for an anaolgy? lol.