I always learn something in these threads, but the phrase "counting the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin" comes to mind.
I always learn something in these threads, but the phrase "counting the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin" comes to mind.
Depends what *this* is...Femr, would you agree with this?
Not from my perspective. My reason for performing the tracing is to determine accurate metrics on building movement. Application of the same methods to early motion of WTC1 has proven very insightful and has highlighted numerous inaccuracies with the NIST analyses. Understanding actual movement can only be helpful in understanding the actual events. Performing similar for WTC7 will help clarify numerous behaviours, such as the timing between corner release points.ozeco41 said:the main reason we are down this track of detailed methodology is because a lot of truther claims are based on the premise that "free fall acceleration" == "demolition"
*freefall* was determined a long time ago, and is not really my focus. I'm more interested in what *else* can be determined by looking at early building motion. The current focus on descent rate has simply evolved out of bits of discussion about the validity of the tracing methods.So determination of freefall or not does not affect the outcome of "was it demolition or not?"
The data does seem to indicate periods of over-G acceleration. A couple of factors not presented are...As I looked at the data, it became evident to me that options 1) & 2) were untenable. The only viable explanation is that there were short periods of time when the acceleration was really > "G".
Femr, do you agree with this?
What for ? ozeco41 brought up why tracing was being performed. I brought up it's prior usage for collection of data for WTC 1. MT posted opinion on some of that data.I have reported Major Tom.

Notes on scaling...
The Dan Rather data is scaled relative to this measurement...
http://femr2.ucoz.com/_ph/3/263595510.jpg
I've set it to 344ft in the spreadsheet data provided, which is based upon the only distance metrics available (to me).
Again, if anyone has information which will allow a more precise distance to be determined, fire away.
I use a metric provided by NIST (242ft - roofline to top of windows on floor 29) with an addition of a multiple of their stated general floor height (12ft 9in) to account for the increased portion visible at the West edge.
And, If I Recall Correctly, the main reason we are down this track of detailed methodology is because a lot of truther claims are based on the premise that "free fall acceleration" == "demolition"
....that premise is false (Attention Chandler, Szamboti et al)
So determination of freefall or not does not affect the outcome of "was it demolition or not?"
OZ,
That is absolutely right.
.........There are three possible explanations for this occurrence:
1) The average acceleration is really < G. That is, the error in the average acceleration is sufficient large to allow variations in the instantaneous acceleration such that it never exceeds "G",
2) The average acceleration is really ~"G", but the calculation of instantaneous acceleration has sufficient error that the standard deviation is really approximately equal to zero, and the instantaneous acceleration over the entire interval is really a constant "G", as well.
3) The instantaneous accelerations over some parts of the interval are less than "G", requiring the instantaneous accelerations over other parts of that interval to be greater than "G".
As I looked at the data, it became evident to me that options 1) & 2) were untenable. The only viable explanation is that there were short periods of time when the acceleration was really > "G".
........
Try telling a truther that this can happen without violating Newton's Laws ...!!
tom
Okay, though I'll highlight at this early juncture that our acceleration curves look quite different. I get similarly shaped results from the NIST Cam #3 viewpoint as well, using a few different methods.Hopefully tonight or tomorrow, I'll be able to spring the time to write up a summary that shows the effects of various filtering techniques (applied to the raw position vs. time data) on the calculated velocity & position (vs time) curves.
It's actually kinda sorta interesting, and it does seem to converge on a solution that is reliable.
Okay, though I think there are many other questions that can be asked of the data. Okay with *a* conclusion ?But here's the conclusion
Okay, though think it should be made clear in text that over-G is present, and that it refers to the NW corner, not the wall.It is correct to say that "for about 2 seconds (from 5 to 7 seconds, by this time index), the average acceleration of the wall was close to free fall."
Agreed, and such a simplistic conclusion could never be true anyway. It's clear that behaviour varies slightly depending upon what point along the roofline is selected.But the claim that "the wall fell at FFA for 2.25 seconds" is not supported by this data.
Again, careful Tom. You've generated *an* acceleration function. Mine is slightly different...Since it's easy to calculate (now that I've got the accel. function), here is a table of the "Average Accelerations over 2.25 second intervals", for start times running from 4.6 sec to 5.6 seconds.
What time interval does each row span ? 0.1s ?{Interval Start time, Average Acceleration over 2.25 sec interval }
Obviously results from my accel curve differ to this. (with over 1s averaging over-G)96.5% G.
Would be a tad useful if your processing steps from position/time data are described in detail, along with inclusion of resultant data. Quite happy to do the same of course.It'll be easy to run the results on his latest data sets some time in the next couple of days.
When applied to their own tracing process, absolutely. In determination of their provided metric, no. They state they determined that from structural drawings of the building. A copy of such would be handy, but...I'd suggest that there are too many complications on the roof to know what point NIST is talking about. There is a roof line & also a parapet wall.
Have you got any facade measurements for WTC 7 ? Extra details very welcome.I'd suggest that you use the distance from the top of a low story window to the top of an upper story (not the 47th story, perhaps the 45th or 46th floor) window. Again, there are differences in the top floors for mechanical reasons.
Shall dig it out. Kicking around in my piling system somewhere.Where is the camera position? Distance from the tower? What angle is the view from the location to the top of the WTC?
No, as long as it's made clear that perspective has not been accounted for it just adds an amount of potential error to results. Quite happy to include an estimation of the effect, but the data is still useful without applying perspective correction. For example, even the NIST Camera #3 footage analysis, which includes far higher levels of perspective, ignored perspective correction completely. I've made quite extensive treatment of my Cam#3 data to account for it. No problem doing so for the Dan Rather viewpoint, though suggest the difference will be marginal.The setup has to be specified or the data is worthless.
As Tom requested, please refrain from these more generalised kind of thought trains on this particular thread.Goes back to the prejudices of the persons jumping to conclusions.
No, the error margin is significantly amplified through derivation of acceleration data from noisy position/time data. What I hope results from this thread more than anything else is clear progression towards methods which deal effectively and accurately with significantly reducing the noise inherent in the raw data, making derived velocity and acceleration much more accurate.has the minute detailing simply reduced such error margin to a degree such that the margins are insignificant?
Perspective has not been taken account of, though it probably will be. It's omission does of course affect the *accuracy* of the data, though from the Dan Rather viewpoint I would suggest the effect is quite small. Modifiers would lekely be linear, so the *shape* of derived data should not be seriously affected.Do all of the positional points require no movement towards or away from the camera and that all movement be either vertical or lateral wrt to the videio frame? If the structure's measurement points were moving left/right and up/down then they were also moving front back and would not such movement, unmeasurable in a 2-d video rendering, affect the accuracy in the vertical measurements?