Buildings Fall: Here"s How

In 2009, an entire 13-story apartment building collapsed in Shanghai. As you are probably aware, multistory buildings are massive. They aren"t just tall; they are heavy. As such, one would expect the death toll to be near catastrophic (especially in a tall building that is capable of holding a number of people. Fortunately, the building was unoccupied at the time of its collapse, so the death toll was much, much less than what it could have been. Remarkably, only one person died as a result of this collapse. But that"s not the only remarkable thing about the building"s demise. Just look at how it fell over -- it looks like it was cut clean from its foundation.


How can this be? How can an entire building just...tip over like a tree?
Find out at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/buildings-fall-heres-how/

Image:
Reuters