It amazes me how no one here can grasp this simple concept. Combustibles smoldering in the debris pile will slow the cooling of the molten steel. They need not be as hot as the molten steel, they only need to raise the temperature of the debris significantly. Think of the pulverized debris as a blanket and the smoldering combustibles as turning it into an electric blanket.
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The reason that nobody bothers to grasp this concept is that it's irrelevant. Let's try framing
your argument in logical terms.
P1: Molten steel was observed weeks after the collapse.
P2: No process other than the thermite reaction is capable of producing molten steel.
C1: Therefore, a thermite reaction was present prior to the collapse.
We are disputing P2, so you need a line of argument that supports it. At present your line of argument is:
P3: Thermite is capable of producing molten steel.
P4: I know of no other process capable of producing molten steel.
C2: Therefore, no process other than the thermite reaction is capable of producing molten steel.
C2 is automatically invalid, as this is simply an argument from ignorance. At this point your line of argument could simply be dismissed as fallacious. However, many of us have tried to point out a counter-argument:
P5: Some process must have been present that could maintain the steel temperature above melting point.
P6: Such a process is capable of releasing heat at temperatures above the melting point of steel.
P7: The thermite reaction cannot take place over a timescale of several weeks.
C3: Therefore there was an unknown process going on in the rubble pile which released heat. This
may have been capable of melting steel.
Your reply to this is that the unknown process
may not have been capable of melting steel. This is not equivalent to a claim that it
cannot have been capable of melting steel.
Therefore, your argument from ignorance has been shown to be fallacious by the counter-argument that there is a thermal process known to have existed of whose nature you are ignorant. Your counter-claims about the limitations of this process are automatically rendered invalid by the undisputed fact that you are ignorant of its nature and details.
In simple terms, your argument concerning the unknown heat source in the pile is "I don't know what it was, but I know in detail what it can and can't have done." This is patently absurd.
Dave