How Gravity Acts

Sir Isaac Newton noticed, centuries ago, that apples fell (down! never up...) from trees. Lots of others, before him, had also noticed this, but none had ever devised a theory of gravity from the observation. Over the years, mankind has learned that the force of gravity comes from an acceleration of known constant magnitude, depending only upon mass and separation. (That doesn't mean we know HOW it works, or WHY, but we have managed to be able to predict its effects with a high degree of precision and an even higher degree of certainty -- gravity has always had the same, predictable, effect.)

Of course, people didn't figure this stuff out immediately. According to legend, Galileo Galilei used the leaning tower of Pisa to demonstrate that a large ball and a small one (of lesser mass) fell (accelerated) at the same rate. Prior to Galileo, people had just assumed that heavier objects fell faster (much the way mankind had long assumed that the Earth was flat!).

So while an object of greater mass will exert more force upon anything which is supporting it against gravity's pull (ie, it's heavier), it does not experience any greater acceleration when gravity's pull is not opposed (ie, when it's falling). Gravity can only accelerate objects at one known, constant rate. Heavier objects are not accelerated (downward) any quicker than are lighter objects, as Galileo demonstrated centuries ago.

The Simplest Case

From experimentation, it has been discovered that, near the surface of the Earth, Earth's gravity will produce a downward acceleration of 32 feet per second per second.

What that means is that an object, after falling one second, will be falling at 32 ft/sec.

After the 2nd second, it will be falling at 64 ft/sec.

After the 3rd second, it will be falling at 96 ft/sec.

And so on.

Further, since gravity's acceleration is constant, and it's falling at 32 ft/sec after one second has elapsed, we know that it has averaged 16 ft/sec for the entire distance, which, after one second, is 16 feet.

As you might imagine, after quite a few such thought experiments, some simple free-fall equations have been derived which can be used to harness this knowledge via numbers and arithmetic:

Velocity = Gravity x Time

and

Distance = 1/2 x Gravity x Time(squared)

So if we want to know how far the object has free-fallen after 3 seconds:

Distance = 1/2 x 32 x 9 = 144 feet

So after 3 seconds, in Earth's gravity, an object will have fallen 144 feet and will be falling at 96 ft/sec.

Checking Our Work

OK, we've just solved a simple physics problem! Now let's check our work, using conservation of energy.

We know that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It merely changes forms. If we take the potential (chemical) energy in a barrel of oil and burn it, we get heat energy. When we take refined oil and burn it in our car's engine, we get kinetic (ie, motion) energy (plus some heat; an engine's not 100% efficient). When we use our car's brakes to bleed off some of that kinetic energy (ie, slow down), the energy is converted into heat (the brakes get HOT).

In the case of the free-falling body, the two kinds of energy we are concerned with are kinetic energy and potential energy. Examples of potential (gravitational) energy are the water stored way up high in a water tower, or a boulder perched atop a hill. If whatever's holding them up there is removed, they will come down, under the influence of gravity's pull.

So, as an object falls, it gives up potential energy for kinetic energy.

It turns out that the equation for potential energy is as follows:

Potential Energy = Mass x Gravity x Height

It turns out that the equation for kinetic energy is as follows:

Kinetic Energy = 1/2 x Mass x Velocity(squared)

So let's just say, for the sake of simplicity, that our falling object has a mass of 1. (Remember, the object's mass will affect its energy, and its momentum, but not its rate of free-fall.)

The potential energy given up by falling 3 seconds (144 ft) is 1 x 32 x 144 = 4608

The kinetic energy gained after falling 3 secs is 1/2 x 1 x 96(squared) = 1/2 x 9216 = 4608

So, all of the available potential energy was converted to kinetic energy. Seeing that energy was, in fact, conserved is how we know that the answer in The Simplest Case, above, was correct. We've checked our work, using an independent analysis, based upon the sound principle of conservation of energy. Now, and only now, we can be certain that our answer was correct.

One Little Complication

Air resistance.

The free-fall equations reflect a perfect, frictionless world. They perfectly predict the behavior of falling bodies in a vacuum. In fact, some of you may have seen a science class demonstration in which the air is pumped out of a tube and then a feather will fall, in that vacuum, as fast as will a solid metal ball.

That's how parachutes work: much of the falling object's potential energy gets expended doing the work of pushing a lot of air out of the way in order for the object to fall. As a result, not all of the potential gravitational energy can go towards accelerating the object downward at at gravity's maximal rate of 32 ft/sec/sec.

In other words, only when there is zero resistance can any falling object's potential energy be completely converted into kinetic energy. Anything which interferes with any falling object's downward acceleration will cause its acceleration to be reduced from the maximum gravitational acceleration of 32 feet per second per second, as some of gravity's potential energy is consumed doing work overcoming resistance.

That's why you may have heard the term "terminal velocity". The free-fall equations predict that a falling object's velocity will continue to increase, without limit. But in air, once a falling object reaches a certain speed, it's propensity to fall will be matched by air's resistance to the fall. At that point the object will continue to fall, but its speed will no longer increase over time.

A Quick Recap

Earth's gravity causes objects to fall. They fall according to precise, well-known equations. The equations assume no (air) resistance. Any resistance at all will cause the object to fall less rapidly than it would have without that resistance.

It is that last sentence which bears repeating.

There is a maximum possible rate at which objects fall, and if any of gravity's potential energy is consumed doing anything other than accelerate the object downward -- even just having to push air out of the way -- there will be less energy available to accelerate the object downward, and so that object's downward acceleration will be diminished.

And if an object's downward acceleration is diminished, it will be going slower along the way, and thus it will take longer to fall a given distance.

Free-falling from WTC heights

The towers were 1350 and 1360 feet tall. So let's start by using our trusty free-fall equation to see how long it should take an object to free-fall from the towers' former height.

Distance = 1/2 x Gravity x Time(squared)

or

Time(squared) = (2 x Distance) / Gravity

Time(squared) = 2710 / 32 = 84.7

Time = 9.2

So our equation tells us that it will take 9.2 seconds to free-fall to the ground from the towers' former height.

Using our simpler equation, V = GT, we can see that at 9.2 seconds, in order to reach the ground in 9.2 seconds, the free-falling object's velocity must be about 295 ft/sec, which is just over 200 mph.

But that can only occur in a vacuum.

Since the WTC was at sea level, in Earth's atmosphere, you might be able to imagine how much air resistance that represents. (Think about putting your arm out the window of a car moving half that fast!) Most free-falling objects would reach their terminal velocity long before they reached 200 mph. For example, the commonly-accepted terminal velocity of a free-falling human is around 120 mph. The terminal velocity of a free-falling cat is around 60 mph. (source)

Therefore, air resistance alone will make it take longer than 10 seconds for gravity to pull an object to the ground from the towers' former height.

Observations from 9/11

On page 305 of the 9/11 Commission Report, we are told, in the government's "complete and final report" of 9/11, that the South Tower collapsed in 10 seconds. (That's the government's official number. Videos confirm that it fell unnaturally, if not precisely that, fast. See for yourself: QT Real)

But as we've just determined, that's free-fall time. That's close to the free-fall time in a vacuum, and an exceptionally rapid free-fall time through air.

But the "collapse" proceeded "through" the lower floors of the tower. Those undamaged floors below the impact zone would have offered resistance that is thousands of times greater than air. Recall that those lower floors had successfully supported the mass of the tower for 30 years.

Air can't do that.

Can anyone possibly imagine the undamaged lower floors getting out of the way of the upper floors as gracefully and relatively frictionlessly as air would? Can anyone possibly imagine the undamaged lower floors slowing the fall of the upper floors less than would, say, a parachute?

It is beyond the scope of the simple, but uncontested, physics in this presentation to tell you how long the collapse should have taken. Would it have taken minutes? Hours? Days? Forever?

Perhaps. But what is certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is that the towers could not have collapsed gravitationally, through intact lower floors, as rapidly as was observed on 9/11.

Not even close!

Because, as you may recall, not only was much energy expended in causing the observed massive high-speed sideways ejections, but virtually all the glass and concrete was "pulverized" -- actually "dissociated" is a much better word. (Nevermind what happened to all the supporting steel core columns...!!!) And the energy requirements to do anything even remotely like that rival the total amount of potential energy that the entire tower had to give. (source) So while gravity is nearly strong enough to cause some things to fall that far, through air, in the observed interval, and while gravity is probably not strong enough to have so thoroughly disintegrated the towers under their own weight, gravity is certainly not strong enough to have done both at once.

Conclusions

In order for the tower to have collapsed "gravitationally", as we've been told over and over again, in the observed duration, one or more of the following zany-sounding conditions must have been met:

• The undamaged floors below the impact zone offered zero resistance to the collapse
• The glass and concrete spontaneously disintegrated without any expenditure of energy
• On 9/11, gravity was much stronger than gravity
• On 9/11, energy was not conserved

However, none of these physics-violating conditions can be accounted for by the official government conspiracy theory of 9/11, nor by any of the subsequent analyses designed to prop up the official theory of 9/11.

Bottom line: the government/PBS/PM/SA explanation for the WTC collapses fails the most basic conservation-of-energy reality check. Therefore the government/PBS/PM/SA theory does not fit the observed facts; the notion of a "pancake collapse" cannot account for what happened. The "pancake collapse theory" explanation is impossible, and thus absurd.

It is utterly impossible for a "gravitational collapse" to proceed so destructively through a path of such great resistance in anywhere near free-fall times. This fact debunks the preposterous contention that the observed WTC collapses can be blamed solely upon damages resulting from aerial assaults.

So, to the extent that people accept the ridiculous "pancake collapse" explanation, Gates' other premise, that people know what they saw, is also incorrect. It is left to the reader to decide if his conclusion, which was based upon two incorrect presumptions, is also flawed.

The purported "gravitational" collapse (video) of World Trade Center building 7, which was hit by zero aircraft, and which also vertically collapsed in within a second of free-fall-time-in-a-vacuum later that same day, similarly fails this same conservation-of-energy analysis.

The explanation for how and why so many highly-accredited and credentialed people all so miserably failed to check the "pancake collapse" theory, by giving it this basic reality check, is beyond the scope of this simple physics discussion.

http://www.911blimp.net/home.shtml

About six or seven weeks ago a new light came on my dashboard. It read "check engine". Which I did several times. I would open the hood, look at the engine, check the fluids and by my inspection, everything looked fine.

About 3 days ago the light stopped coming on. So now I no longer need to check the engine. The only question I have is why would the check engine light come on and then go off without someone with a computer either reset the light or fix what needed to be checked.

The car is a 2001 volvo s40. Who knows, do you?

Not exactly 111th but a fourth of a hundred. "Today is my one hundredth and eleventh birthday" comes from a famous movie of my time.

Twenty five. Halfway to fifty and I still don't think that I will ever grow up. Nor do I think I need to. I mean as far as taking responsibility is concerned, I have that covered. But when it comes to the everyday in and out somebody has to keep things going.

To recap on twenty five years. I can say that I started out working as a grocery baggier for Kroger. My last day was a no show. Going to work there made me depressed.

My next job was for the upper class, at the country club. There I washed dishes with the best of them. I was the main dishwasher, the head plate. I was moving up fast. Before a year went by I had quit that job twice never to return.

I found myself next in a metal machine shop watching a punch press form metal by using tons of force. I had to stand or sit and watch punch press mass produce fire extinguishers handles for hours on end. Other duties of mine included cutting metal rods with a metal saw. From time to time sparks would hit me in the face. My arm would grow weak from pulling down on the saw to cut the metal bars. I didn't like the job too much, but when you have things you have to pay for, you have to do what you don't want to do.

My very good friend Jon said his dad was looking for people interested in working with a software development company. This is where I would become a tester of code/software/interfaces. From there on out I was completely consumed by the software development/pc world. I could not get enough of this environment.

From there I was laid off. I was one of the first six to be let go. I learned a lot of things from that company and the man who gave me a chance to work for them. I can say that I didn't give enough to that job. Like a beaten kid I left that morning thinking that it had felt like someone kick me in the balls and took the breath out of my very lungs. Eventually the company closed down completely.

My next venture was an office job with a logistics company. It was an office job doing various office duties. In addition to those duties I kept the PCs there updated and running. I built a couple of machines for office projects of various sorts. I made many friends there. In my three years there we went through three general managers and one really confused guy who really tried running the place into the ground.

A contact from there heard word of a IT job opening. I submitted my resume and after two interviews I landed a job doing desktop support for the city I was born in. It has been a little over a year since my hire.

And now, I’m twenty five and moving forward. I look back but not for too long, its easy to get lost. Just remember, stay the course.

The price of freedom here in the united states cost us more than the lives we live, it cost us our dignity and self respect. For some reason many large companies and businesses know that for the most part American people will do just about anything you tell them with little guidance. I'm not bashing you, I'm in the same boat.

Its just that when important things happen to this country, no body pays any attention to what the hell is going on, or maybe they do and just don't care.

For example the price of gas, yeah its not $3.40+ anymore but its still about 40 to 60 cents above what it was before the hurricane. And why? The price of a gallon of crude and a gallon of gasoline is about 85 to 90 cents a gallon. In order for gas to be $3.00 a gallon we should be paying about $95 a barrel of gas. The thing is crude oil has been at $65 a barrel and holding.

Look at it like this, what is the most important part of a business? Money. With one fourth of our oil coming from the gulf of Mexico and for someone to say they didn't think the hurricane Katrina was going to affect the oil industries equipment on the gulf coast and not do something to protect it, is a total crock of shit. Money hungry sons of bitches would be well aware of the money about to be lost, or gained in a time of chaos.

But then again, its a win win situation for the oil companies.

The biggest bully in the world, who starts wars with oil rich countries on a decade to decade basis still cant save its economy.

The more I think the more angry I get. What a joke of a nation to not plan for an event that was predicted for many days. Just incase you are under a dumb ass blanket the last few days the event im talking about is hurricane katrina. Thank your goverment(United States of Profetors) for gas gouging and allowing gas companies to do what they want to our entire economy.

The last time i checked, when companies or stores upded the price on there products just to take advantage of monumental events, went to jail for gouging. But since our goverment and states make money of of the gas gouging I'm sure they will find a way to sugar shit coat the wonderful things they are trying to do as soo as they can.

With warnings of one of the worst natural disasters on the way toward our 1/4 supply of oil, the goverment did nothing to prepare. So what are we left with? A slow ass response to a tragic event. Then we have the scum sucking president making plans after the fact that gas has sky rocketed on the weekend of a holidy. So as you can image the oil companies are making there share of money while fucking the rest of the country in the ass and not to mention the federal and state taxes on top of the gas prices.

So here is how powerful a country we are. We start a war with a country that supplies us with oil, we have fought countless battles for the middle east and lost many of american lives just to let me screw us deeper when we are in a crisis.

Screw the goverment for poor planning and allowing oil companies to modify their prices on a day to day basis. As important as oil is to every single entity that exist, maybe the goverment should be in charge of it or maybe that is even worse.

Be sure to call your local senetor and remind him or her that this place we call a country is going to the shitter for the sake of someone making a profit.

A revolution is needed here in this country we call home. One that goes against the ideals and policies placed upon us by our idiot goverment officials. And for the love of god someone get us a new president.

Prediction: Right after the holiday weekend the oil reserve and the other nobodies that are trying to help our gas woes, the price of gas will go back down.

For no plan to be in place before this happen is a monumental mistake. For both the oil reserves and the help that was forever delayed. How many lives will be lost and much profit will be made at the expense of letting the rich low life of the world to *eat in a better cafeteria.

*quote from vanilla sky where everything was a dream.

I cant say much about someone I dont know personally. Since my mind can remeber watching news, I can imagine Peter Jennings face. One thing that comes to mind about him is that I never heard anyone say they didnt like or disliked Jennings. He might be canadian, but that doesnt go against him in my book. A good guy who will be missed. Later on peter.

BIOGRAPHY

Peter Jennings is the anchor and senior editor of ABC's "World News

Tonight" where he has established a reputation for independence and excellence in broadcast journalism. He is the network's principal anchor for breaking news, election coverage and special events.

As one of America's most distinguished journalists, Peter Jennings has reported many of the pivotal events that have shaped our world. He was in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was going up, and there in the '90s when it came down. He covered the civil rights movement in the southern United States during the 1960s, and the struggle for equality in South Africa during the 1970s and '80s. He was there when the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965, and on the other side of the world when South Africans voted for the first time. He has worked in every European nation that once was behind the Iron Curtain. He was there when the independent political movement Solidarity was born in a Polish shipyard, and again when Poland's communist leaders were forced from power. And he was in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania and throughout the Soviet Union to record first the repression of communism and then its demise. He was one of the first reporters who went to Vietnam in the 1960s, and went back to the killing fields of Cambodia in the 1980s to remind Americans that, unless they did something, the terror would return.

In broadcast journalism, Peter Jennings has a reputation for putting the most complex and difficult issues on the agenda when others have largely ignored them. From his early days in the Middle East and South Africa, to the contemporary challenges in Africa and the former Soviet Union, on education, health care and tobacco — these are issues with which Jennings' stewardship at "World News Tonight" and his special series, "Peter Jennings Reporting," have been associated.

He is the author, with Todd Brewster, of the acclaimed New York Times best seller, "The Century." Structured as an epic tale about "ourselves," it is a lavish book that features astonishing first-person accounts of the great events of the century. In 1999, he anchored the 12-hour ABC series, "The Century," and ABC's series for The History Channel, "America's Time." He and Brewster have recently published a new book, "In Search of America," a companion book for the ABC News series.

On December 31, 1999, Jennings anchored ABC's Peabody-award winning coverage of Millennium Eve, "ABC 2000." 175 million Americans watched the telecast, making it the biggest live global television ever. "The day belonged to ABC News," praised The Washington Post, "with Peter Jennings doing a nearly superhuman job of anchoring." Jennings was the only anchor to appear live for 25 consecutive hours.

Jennings led the Network's coverage of the September 11 attacks and America's subsequent war on terrorism. He anchored more than 60 hours that week during the Network's longest continuous period of news coverage, and was widely praised for providing a reassuring voice during the time of crisis. TV Guide called him "the center of gravity," while the Washington Post wrote, "Jennings, in his shirt sleeves, did a Herculean job of coverage."

Jennings joined ABC News on August 3, 1964. He briefly served as the anchor of the "ABC Evening News" from 1965 to 1968. In 1972 he helped put ABC News on the map with his coverage of the Summer Olympics in Munich, as Arab terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage.

Prior to his current appointment, Jennings served as chief foreign correspondent for ABC News and he was the foreign desk anchor for "World News Tonight" from 1978 to 1983. He established the first American television news bureau in the Arab world when he served as ABC News' bureau chief for Beirut, Lebanon, a position he held for seven years.

Jennings was named anchor and senior editor of "World News Tonight" in 1983. In the only five years that the Washington Journalism Review gave an award for the country's best anchor, Jennings was named each time. In 1995 the Boston Globe noted "the passing of Edward R. Murrow's mantle to Peter Jennings." He has won the Harvard University's Goldsmith Career Award for excellence in journalism and the coveted Radio and Television News Directors Paul White Award, chosen by the news directors of all three major networks. This year, "World News Tonight" was honored with the Edward R. Murrow award for best newscast.

His extensive domestic and overseas reporting experience has proven to be invaluable during "World News Tonight's" coverage of major crises. He has reported from all 50 states and locations around the globe. During the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 War in Iraq, his knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs brought invaluable perspective to ABC News' coverage. During the historic transfer of sovereignty to Iraq in June 2004, Jennings was one of only two television journalists to witness the historic transfer of power and one of only three Western journalists to be in the room for Saddam Hussein's first appearance before an Iraqi court. He has anchored the ABC News coverage of every major national election since 1984.

In "Peter Jennings Reporting," which debuted in 1990, Jennings covers challenging issues in depth during primetime television. Millions watched the critically acclaimed "The Search for Jesus" in 2000 and "Jesus and Paul — the Word and the Witness" in 2004. "Peter Jennings Reporting" has also focused extensively on international news, with specials on tense relations between India and Pakistan, the conflict in Bosnia, the crisis in Haiti, the war in Iraq and the drug trade in Central and South America. The series has also tackled important domestic issues such as gun control policy, the politics of abortion, the crisis in funding for the arts and a highly praised chronicle of the accused bombers of Oklahoma City. "Peter Jennings Reporting" has earned numerous awards, including the 2004 Edward R. Morrow award for best documentary for "The Kennedy Assasination — Beyond Conspiracy."

Jennings has a particular interest in broadcasting for the next generation. He has done numerous live news specials for children on subjects ranging from growing up in the age of AIDS, to prejudice and its effects on our society. After the events of September 11, and again on the anniversary, he anchored a town hall meeting for children and parents entitled, "Answering Children's Questions."

Jennings has been honored with many awards for news reporting, including 14 national Emmys, two George Foster Peabody Awards, several Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards and several Overseas Press Club Awards.

On a late sunday night Peter Jennings passed on to a better place. He was 67.

Well I have been mia. Missing in action. However the action has been going on, just not noted here. Last week I took a vacation to nags head north carolina.

The first day at the beach I talked myself out of using sunblock. The next day I was burned, still i layed out on the beach thinking that the sun screen I used on day two would mend the red skin.

This was not the case. Due to the level of burn I stayed out of suns light for two days. Only to wear a shirt to the beach the rest of the week.

We held a texas hold em round using some game board tokens as chips. I placed a good second to my brother who beat me on an all in call at the river.

I have brother who has a exscalade that he raised ten or twelve feet off the ground. At the beach it served for good purpose at the point, the point is a place out on the beach that requires a good clearance and wide tires to get to. In addition to being able to fly across the beach the escalade was good for climing sand dunns. This is not the most contemprary use for a jacked up truck, it did however scare the shit out of everyone inside the ride excluding the driver.

While there I war walked, not war drive, and found a wireless access network. After not being able to connect to it the first day I decided to take a break from everything including the internet.

Which brings me to this. The end of this entry that tells you a little about my very relaxing vacation. As always the development of blogtext continues and new features and functions are on the arise.

Its the things you dont think you will remember. Its the things you never thought you could remember. Its times when things seem to be everything they are not and destorted into things that are not realized.

I can remember when I fought with my brothers to what we would consider death, or untill someone told mom what was going on. Usually it was me, the youngest of a trio of breeds born to take the world over.

And now we are older. Mid and late 20's, i find my brothers all grown up. Not like when we were idiot kids fighting with one another. Days that once were spent chasing each other, lying about our homework, not calling home to let the parents know where we are,  are all in the past. Those memories exist in a memory that dwindles everyday. I hope not to forget my memories of my closest kin.

The simple time of life when we thought about nothing, nothing at all.

Now my brothers have children of their own. Their own world so to say.  And before when we saw each other too much, now we remenis on times adrift. The occasional family get together, wedding, funeral, or some kind of occasion bring the band of brothers back together.

I have two brothers and they are my best good friends.

this weekend I celebrated two years with my better half. she came up with the idea to go to bush gardens. after little deliberation about other options including kings dominion, the decision was final to take ourselves to the beer roller coaster place.

As a kid I never thought about it, Anheuser Busch, the beer company, runs bush garden. It does explain why you can buy beer all over the park. The bad part is that you can get drunk there, but you have to smoke in marked off sections. Twice I saw security guards escorting smokers to smoking locations.

The new ride Curse of DarKastle is not that great of a ride. The hour long line was due to several, at lease 6 or more, fautly carts or whatever you want to call the thing that carries you through the ride. For some reason there is this elaborate story you have to listen to about a kid who in plain terms, kills his parents and becomes the king of the castle and turns into a wolfe ghost and the kastle is frozen, and now for some reason you are about to fly to his castle. Due to the loud people and confusion of what we were supposed to do, most of the introduction to the wolfe story got lost. They do provide 3d glasses that you will need to use to get the full effect of the 3-d.

We enjoyed the day along with a little sun burn around the neck. I do remember the wafflecone ice cream with strawberries diped in white chocolate. I have a couple pictures, where are they?