Why do people always mention "jet fuel" as an excuse for steel and concrete melting?

Question

When jet fuel merely ignites the fires--it doesn't make the fire itself anymore potent than any other fire. And we know sky scrapers completely ENGULFED in fire have been left to burn out by themselves--no magical melting of steel or pulverizing of concrete occurred.

It can affect the size of the fires and how qucikly everything burns--it doesn't make the fire superpotent to defy physics.

It has been shown that the little jet fuel that remained in the buidings--since most of it leaked outside of the buidlings were already burning out based on the black color of the smoke. Jet fual DOES burn itself out, you know.

"Jet-aircraft engines typically use fuels with higher flash points, which are less flammable and therefore safer to transport and handle."

--Wikipedia

The bare minimum temperature that any alloy of Steel begins to melt is 1130°C. Steel never turns into a liquid below this temperature. Pure Iron ('Steel' with 0% Carbon) starts to melt at 1492°C (2720°F), and is completely liquid upon reaching 1539°C (2802°F). Steel with 2.1% Carbon by weight begins melting at 1130°C (2066°F), and is completely molten upon reaching 1315°C (2400°F) 'Steel' with more than 2.1% Carbon is no longer Steel, but is known as Cast iron.

Maximun burning temp of jet fuel:
980°C

Answer 1

What else they got? The average person can handle only so much. The "truth" has got to fit into a package their consciousness can handle. So lets call everything else "conspiracy theories" and ignore anything to the contrary! Lets not even examine this! You see we will all feel better and think we have a handle on things!

Answer 2

Your wrong and right at the same time. Steel will melting in a fire and bend out of shape and the temp of the steel will also changes with heat. So if you are talking about the world trade center it is like this. The metal support was in the center of the building where the fire would be the hottest. There was a large weight over the support multi stories that were not on fire. As temp on the effected floors increase the structural strength of the one or more of the floor weakinged a level were the floor above collapsed. That caused a chain reaction in reality the weight once moving crashed thought the floors till it reached the ground. Any fireman can tell you that that is one of the big dangers in a large building fire.

Answer 3

Because is burns really long and really really hot. The planes were fully fueled for flights to CA. They had 10's of thousands of pounds of jet fuel aboard. Dumb it in a lake and it might burn for days. The beams did not have to melt, only heat up enough to start bending. So much damage was done by the jumbo jets crashing into the towers, the weight was transferred to the remaining beams, as they heated up to 1400-1800 degrees f, they started to bend and sag under the weight of the stories above. When they bent to a certain point, they failed. You need to study you simple chemestry and physics.

It says little for our education system when adults cannot figure out how crashing a fully fueled jumbo jet into a building would cause catastrophic damage.

Answer 4

Because jet fuel is kerosene. And there was a whole lot of it when the two aircraft hit those towers. Both planes had recently taken off with full fuel loads in their tanks. The steel girders framing those buildings were tied in to horizontal steel trusses which held the floors up. When those trusses melted, the floors "pancaked" into each other. If you think steel can't melt, then stay away from any welder who is working.

Answer 5

Jet fuel burns at a significantly higher temp than standard gasoline. Thus it IS more potent.

Got a source for a sky scraper completely engulfed in a fire after dropping tons on it, weakening the foundations and structures by superheating it ?

As the photographer used to say to the Native Americans; "it's only magic if you don't understand it"

Answer 6

Yeah, Jet Fuel is very potent stuff and can cause an extremely high temperature fire, especially when you have an airliner ready for a coast to coast trip. Heat is used to melt steel to form it, so it can certainly weaken or destroy it. Look at the section of freeway that collapsed in California and tell me that fire can't melt steel, or that it never happens.

Answer 7

You are not that bight, are you. Jet fuel is designed to burn at much higher temperatures than conventional fuel. Regular fuel will melt steel as well, remember the bridge in California. Steel is molded in a liquid state, what makes you think that it can't revert back?

Answer 8

Hello? Dum-dum.....Anybody home? Melting of steel isn't "magical"...steel has a high melting point and the jet fuel makes a fire burn very hot. That's not an "excuse" (and why would someone make an excuse for that anyway?) it is the reason. High burning temps will also make concrete disintegrate. Why the attitude?

Answer 9

It was the amount of jet fuel. Couple thousand gallons of jet fuel goingt 500 miles an hour into the side of a building that is 100 stories tall is more link a missle or bomb going off. Have you ever played with matches and gas? That stuff is explosive!!

Answer 10

I guess you didnt catch the news of that oil tanker that caught fire and brought down a steel and concrete overpass from the intense heat huh?
yeah, I know, there's only so much time between clarity and being stoned.

busy busy busy!

Answer 11

Actually, jet fuel does make the fire burn at a much higher temperature than if the fire just consumed building materials.