“Jet fuel can’t melt steel” is the unofficial rallying cry of 9/11 truthers. It’s also completely irrelevant, because steel doesn’t have to melt to lose its strength…. “If you hold this up as a reason for conspiracy, you are an idiot,” Trenton Tye, a Georgia blacksmith who runs Purgatory Ironworks and has been featured on the History Channel, said in a new video that debunks one of the truthers’ core arguments. Tye said that while steel melts at about 2,700 degrees — well above the 1,500-degree heat of a jet fuel fire — it weakens at a much lower temperature. He then did a simple video demonstration to make his point.
Here’s a pro tip for those of you conspiracy theorists who believe your special access to knowledge not available to the general public makes you an Authority on whatever it is you’ve chosen to obsess over: Know what you’re talking about. If you’re going to cling to your conviction that the government, media, or another agent of Big Brother was responsible for 9/11, you might want to first make certain that argument is realistic.
While it’s true that steel melts at temperatures well above the heat of a jet fuel fire, it becomes pliable at much lower temperatures. In the case of the structural steel used in the World Trade Center buildings, that pliability means it loses its strength…which would explain why the towers collapsed.
The next time you feel moved to weigh in with the “JET FUEL CAN’T MELT STEEL!!!!” argument, check out this video…and revel in the fact that your argument is meaningless. While you’re at it, you might also want to consider the absurdity of believing 9/11 to be an inside job.
