Blacksmith Takes On 9/11 Truthers in YouTube Video

'Your argument is invalid'
By Luke Roney,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2015 12:49 PM CST

A Georgia metal worker has set out to disprove the belief that jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt steel beams—like those in the World Trade Center towers—a major contention of conspiracy theorists who insist that 9/11 was an inside job. "I am so sick and tired of this argument," Trenton Tye says in his YouTube video. First, Tye demonstrates the strength of a half-inch thick structural steel beam by using it to lift an anvil. Then he takes another piece of steel he says has been heated to 1,800 degrees and shows how it has become bendable, like "a freaking noodle." In closing, Tye declares: "Your argument is invalid. Get over it. Find a job."

While it does show that steel beams don't need to melt to lose their integrity, Tye's demonstration—"more party trick than perfect simulation"—does a have a few flaws, Popular Mechanics points out:

  • The steel beam he used is heated to 1,800 degrees, 300 degrees hotter than jet fuel burns.
  • Tye doesn't say for how long the beam was heated.
  • He doesn't provide evidence of his forge's temperature.
Those flaws, the Daily Dot notes, have already been seized upon by so-called 9/11 truthers in comments on the video, which has been viewed more than 6.5 million times, seeking to debunk Tye's debunking. But "hey, at least he tried," concludes the post. ("Truthers" won't let go of the Sandy Hook shooting, either.)

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