# @stem_antics on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcjs_ffy5wK
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69727800-stem-antics-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/a1b1a0755e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-27T21:01:57.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Stem Antics (@stem_antics) — https://gondola.cc/stem_antics

## Caption

A building implosion does not blow a structure apart. It removes just enough support that gravity finishes the job, and the whole event is engineered around that single transfer of work.

Explosives account for a tiny fraction of the effort. The rest is preparation, and it takes months.

Crews first strip the building to its skeleton, removing glass, cladding, partitions and asbestos, anything that would become uncontrolled debris. Engineers then map the load paths and identify which columns are primary and which are redundant. Only a fraction are ever charged. The rest are pre-weakened by hand: concrete chipped away to expose reinforcement, steel flanges cut into V-shapes with oxy-fuel torches so each column has a predetermined hinge.

The charges themselves are small and specific:

- Concrete columns: boreholes of 35-50 mm loaded with emulsion or gelatine explosive, often under a kilogram per column
- Steel columns: linear shaped charges exploiting the Munroe effect, driving a copper jet at 7-8 km/s straight through the web
- Every charge wrapped in chain-link fencing and geotextile to contain flyrock

What actually controls the fall is timing. Shock tube or electronic detonators fire in a sequence spanning several seconds, with delays as short as tens of milliseconds between rows. Failing the core first pulls the perimeter inward. Failing one face before the other topples the structure like a felled tree. The sequence, not the charge size, decides where the building lands.

Collapse then obeys simple physics. An unresisted fall from height h takes t = sqrt(2h/g), so a 100 m tower would reach the ground in roughly 4.5 seconds. Real collapses run slower, because every floor consumes energy crushing the one beneath it.

Demolition engineering is architecture in reverse. You have to understand exactly how a building stands before you can decide how it falls.

#stemantics #engineering #demolition #structuralengineering #physics

## Stats

- **Views:** 16,302
- **Likes:** 299
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- **Comments:** 14

## Tags

engineering, demolition, structuralengineering, physics, stemantics

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