Re: Israel–Gaza conflict
Yes. That is true. But regardless of the temperature.
- High-rise buildings are over-engineered to have strength many times greater than would needed to survive the most extreme conditions anticipated. It may take well over a ten-fold reduction in strength to cause a structural failure.
- If a steel structure does experience a collapse due to extreme temperatures, the collapse tends to remain localized to the area that experienced the high temperatures.
- The kind of low-carbon steel used in buildings and automobiles bends rather than shatters. If part of a structure is compromised by extreme temperatures, it may bend in that region, conceivably causing a large part of the structure to sag or even topple. However, there is no example of a steel structure crumbling into many pieces because of any combination of structural damage and heating, outside of the alleged cases of the Twin Towers and Building 7.
That is all blatantly false though.
Get a piece of metal coathanger 20cm long, some bluetac and a coin.
Bluetac the coathanger piece to the coin so it is standing straight up, like a paperweight.
put it on the palm of your hand pointing upwards.
This coathanger is going to be the structural member.
Heat it up in the middle, careful not to burn you hand.
Now, you other hand is going to play the upper floors.
Hit your hand down on the sharp end of the coathanger.
Don't worry, the failure will be localised.
No forces will be transfered to either of your hands.