how are the weight on the first floor of a skyscraper able to hold the weight of over a 100 floors?
In: 570
Skyscrapers are mostly hollow inside. Steel and concrete are very strong, and the parts that hold up the building really are a lot bigger and thicker at the bottom, even if you can’t tell that just by looking at the outside.
The analogies below about ladders and bookshelves are good ones. Especially the bookshelf. You know how bookshelves often have a thin back that holds the pieces straight, so they don’t skew and collapse like a pancake? Skyscrapers need something to do that job, too.
The fact that skyscrapers are mostly hollow inside is also why they tend to fall down like you see in September 11th footage instead of like a tree getting chopped down.
***EDIT: Unless you’re asking about how the skyscraper is attached to the ground. Skyscrapers do not sit on the ground like tall boxes, ready to tip over at any minute. The bottoms stick into the ground like the roots of a tree. Or like a really big version of the basement of your house, if you have a basement. Often, the foundations extend dozens of feet through the dirt to sit on top of sturdy bedrock.***
The columns support the weight of the skyscraper. The floors only support the weight/load on each floor and that contributes to the weight/load to the columns. The columns transfer the weight to the ground which if u go down far enough with piles (like columns but driven into soil) you can rest on bedrock which can carry massive loads.
This is one of things you can explain 100 times and I’ll still never believe it’s anything other than witchcraft and black magic.
I like this thread. now think about how the towers came down on 9/11. There’s no way it would collapse like that.
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