Wake up. The antenna was not part of the Soviet Union's radio communications. He was in Poland. It was a Polish radio station, not a Soviet one. The antenna was not located in Warsaw, but in Konstantynów.
I apologise for mistakenly labelling it as a Soviet radio mast, for some reason I thought Poland was part of the Soviet Union... geography is not my strong suit. I will do more research next time.
@@Contraflex No, no, we were a seperate country in the Eastern Block (economic/military ties with Russia back then) Thanks for the video. Cool that you're interested in old radio towers 😂😂 Ever thought of becoming a tower technician ? ;) (I think it's a cool thing to do for a living, climb these towers) Anyhow, best wishes to you 😊
Thanks to the Warsaw Antenna, the 629-meter KTHI-TV tower in Blanchard, North Dakota has the distinction of twice being the tallest structure on Earth: from its 1963 erection until the Warsaw Antenna's completion in 1974, and then from the Warsaw Antenna's 1991 collapse until Burj Khalifa "topped off" in 2008. The Blanchard tower, now KVLY-DTV, still stands sixty years later.
@@Contraflex Theres a wonderful TV episode on Big Machines, with a HD cameraman going to the top during an antenna replacement. Got a twinge of vertigo just watching it on 720P. I see theres a nine minute piece on TowerandTurbine channel on UTube.
@@Contraflexit was just recently finally connected to the sewerage system. Keep up the good work, it’d be cool to see a video about the upcoming Southbank by Beulah which will be Australia’s tallest building and have the tallest vertical garden in the world.
Thanks for the feedback, this was made using Blender and the "Bullet Constraints Builder" add-on. There is a great tutorial on how to use it by UA-camr "EarthquakeSim".
@@Contraflexholy crap :0 I was joking in my head saying "pushing the limit of blender by recreating the collapse of this tower" didnt suspect for it to be actually simulated in blender!
There are different stories about the collapse. I personally read of successfully replacing the main rope with two temporary ones, but then hours after workers left the area one of the temporary ropes slipped off of it's clamp, causing the disaster. This is why there were no killed or injuried, as everybody had left the site prior to the collapse. Also I heard that the signal wasn't getting it's way to the Antarctica, but it could have been received in the north and central Africa. The mast was never rebuilt, after years of waiting they finally replaced it with another one (actually an array of two "half-wave" masts) near the city of Solec Kujawski (/solets kooyavski/). You can still receive it at 225 kHz, AM band of course. It's not as powerful as the old one, but I believe it still covers most of Europe and maybe even larger area. Greetings from Poland.
Thank you for the information. I researched this video primarily from the English Wikipedia article, I imagine I would have missed a lot of Polish sources that have more information. Your account of the collapse definitely seems possible and would explain why no one was injured despite the scale of the collapse. I am glad to hear the replacement masts still have such impressive transmission capabilities.
@@igorzherebiatev5751 Yes friend that's it. And by now, after the government changed in Poland, there soon will be no more right-wing propaganda in the public radio :)
@@tomsterbg8130 It was turned off for maintenance. I wouldn't be for illegal skydiver. Legend says the EM field was so powerful people with amalgam tooth fillings living in nearby villages could hear the radio inside their heads.
WHAT? It wasn't a part of soviet communication network. It was just radio mast for Poles living abroad. There were 10 mln Poles living abroad and Polish goverment wanted them to have abiblity to listen Polish radio. That's all - no soviets were involved in the project.
Yes, the collapse appeared to be localised in a small radius near the base of the tower. If anyone was in the vicinity during the collapse, I'm sure they would have had sufficient time to run away from the base and avoid being struck.
I used to pass by the WECT Tower a lot as a child before it was demolished. It was 663 meters tall. I was always amazed by the thought of someone having to climb to the top to service the beacons.
*You have just 63 subscribers?? You have great quality content, I am sure with content like this you channel will see some good growth in the time to come* 👍
Excellent presentation! I love these kind of computer simulated disaster recreations. Very well done. I feel lucky to be subscriber #310. You're channel will be in the 10's of thousands (and beyond) in no time if you keep this kind of production quality!
In Poland, we generally liked to broadcast the radio. We had several transmitters capable of transmitting signals far beyond the horizon. And every time some man had to ruin it. (babice transatlantic, several radio broadcasting centers disrupting propaganda radios from the west during the USSR)
@@Contraflex Maybe the decline of broadcast AM/FM, but of radio? In the current era of wireless Internet and phone connectivity, I'd say there's more radio than ever.
@@Tacticaviator7 They use all kinds of bands going from microwave right down to UHF. Part of the old analog TV spectrum here (800mhz) is now used for 4G comms. In any case, theres still a ton of radio spectrum in heavy use, just different use than it was maybe 20-30 years ago.
@@technicalfool well generally "radio" as a term is used for AM/FM transmissions, so it's close enough. Yeah, cell phones still use towers, but I don't think "masts" are being built as commonly as before. We have satellites now, and there's no wider range than a transmission in space.
The guys that changed the lights on that tower had it easy with that elevator. I've met some guys who change light bulbs on towers next to where I live, and they have to climb the side of the towers by hand. After talking with them I was like, "Nope, I'm not in good enough shape to do that." The towers near me are like maybe a third, or a fifth, or an even smaller fraction of the height of that tower, but that's more than I wanna mess with. I wouldn't mind going that high, but not under my own power thanks. :P
I'm friends with the engineer that worked at our local TV station. He said their tower has an elevator however I believe he said it only takes you halfway up. You have to climb the rest of the way.
@@badcompany-w6s No, ... traditionally, we change a bulb by three men ... two turning a ladder and the third holding the bulb. That's why, to keep the tradition alive, the second half of the tower has no lift.
I'm not aware of any images showing the entire footprint of the collapse, but some close up photos show large sections of the tower remained intact, similar to what is seen in this video.
"We'll detach the Cable that needs repairing, and then, attach the temporary support Cable's...." Even just the idea of it, is enough to tell you that it ain't a good idea, to not have attached the supporting Cable's before, they disconnected the main support Cable
@@Contraflex The illustration pretty much demonstrated that particular scenario......there was no reference made to any support Cables being attached to the Tower before the damaged Main Cable was released for repair...."if that's what really happened", then..."the repair methodology Was seriously flawed..."
Great Video! Apart from the first part where you said its in the soviet union its a well explained and shown video. I don't see many people talk about this radio mast, barely anyone knows Poland had the tallest structure, so many thanks for sharing! It seems sometimes like inventions from Poland, especially unqiue ones, are supressed by the media and internet.
this story sounds very similar to how the Arecibo Radio Telescope met its demise. The main receiver was held up by steel cables so it could be adjusted around the dish. those cables were left to rust and rot in the Puerto Rican sun for decades without any kind of preventative maintenance. then a few years ago, one of the three cables started to break, and the receiver plunged into the dish. It was a sad day for radio astronomy and astronomy/cosmology in general.
The KVLY mast lost about 75 feet of height in 2019 with the replacement of an antenna. Its neighbor in Galesburg, North Dakota, the KRDK mast, now holds the title of the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, if you don't count the underwater Petronius Platform. KRDK was only 3 feet shorter than KVLY's original height. I should really drive over and see it sometime, since it's in my state.
This is fascinating and a great video. I don't understand from an engineering perspective why there wasn't redundancy in the design. It seems like losing one guy wire should not cause an almost immediate catastrophic failure of the structure (I know there were other factors involved, but still). You would think the structure itself should be able to resist some deformation, and that the numerous guy wires are simply there for added stability. But then, I'm not an engineer so what do I know XD
I think under normal loading conditions, the failure of a single guy wire would not cause the entire tower to collapse. However, once the tower was struck by the extreme wind gust while the guy wire was missing, it resulted in the tower being displaced enough to cause progressive collapse. It likely would have been too expensive to design the tower to survive this extremely unlikely scenario; a potentially one in one thousand year wind gust happening at the same time as a guy wire being replaced (which would presumably only take a few hours to replace). Technically the structure could be designed to withstand a one in one thousand year wind gust without any guy wires, but it would require extremely large steel members and would be very expensive; at that point you are no longer designing a guyed mast, you are designing a skyscraper.
Is it possible to validate the result of this simulation against images of the collapsed tower? As someone who has worked with computer simulations, many people assume that a simulation is correct simply because it was done on computer with a visually impressive model, when in reality boundary conditions and assumptions can make enormous differences in how the simulation plays out.
I definitely agree with you. If you put garbage into your simulation/model, you will get garbage out of it. Additionally, if I had chosen a different cable to detach at the start, I'm sure the collapse would have looked entirely different. However, the goal of this simulation was less scientific and moreso for entertainment/educational value. Still, you will see in photos of the real collapse that the mast remained in large undamaged segments as seen in this video.
Really like the delve into turbulence and vortex shedding and how this creates resonant oscillations in the tower. My masters dissertation was on vortex generation and shedding but in a quantum fluid of superfluid He4 where the difference between turbulent and laminar regimes is very discrete compared to classical fluids. Great and interesting video, hope to see more from your channel in future.
Thank you for sharing, that sounds really interesting. Are there any machines or systems where He4 vortex shedding is an important consideration, or was your research more theoretical?
Great stuff, just keep at it mate! You'll be one of the biggest infotainment channels on YT if you keep it up for a year or two! I remember watching first Real Engineering videos and seeing a spark of potential in the creator. I see the exact same thing here!
I believe that more then the wind, removing a set of guy wires on one side would cause a tremendous 'offset' to the others still attached to the tower. Their collective WEIGHT alone would pull the structure over for sure!
perfect work man keep going im supporting you 👍 its remind me of BATTLEFIELD 3 caspian border map when the antenna tower fall .... can you make a video about it please ? and thanks ❤
As a polish I have to be honest - you deserve more views here, well done video and well explained. I think it's a shame we caused a disaster like that, the tower could still be standing there today. Edit: by the way yea, it's a polish tower placed in Poland, np 😅
Thank you for the kind words, I assume you are referencing the Warsaw radio mast video... unless the Poles had something to do with Grollo tower as well 😂
Such a structure is definitely not as stable as a skyscraper, for example, but it is orders of magnitude cheaper and will rarely have any humans near it who could be harmed if it collapses.
I would absolutely love if you could release the files for this so that somebody could figure out exactly how that would have sounded. God damn it must have been amazing and terrifying
Watching a simulation is not seeing the actual event; you have no idea if this simulation is even accurate without reference footage, and since none exists, you have no idea how accurate this is.
From the title I assumed that literally nobody had seen the collapse happen, which would be quite feasible if it had happened in the middle of the night and/or during storm which caused low visibility. Obviously that wasn't the case as it collapsed in the daytime with many eyewitnesses, during active repairs no less, so I find the title to be quite misleading.
You are right, the title is somewhat clickbait. However, the fact that only a handful of people witnessed the collapse of the world's tallest structure at the time, and no one has ever seen a recording of it, is still true.
I love how there were people who said that this mast caused health problems to them, eh... the stupidity. Also there is a 36 minute material about that mast in Polish, but it has English subtitles too iirc - its worth to watch it.
I've always suspected that the collapse of this tower was deliberate sabotage. I thought that when I first saw it on the news back in the day. The Cold War I'd grown up in was ending; glasnost and perestroika were the watchwords of the day, the Berlin Wall had fallen, Poland had become a free state under Lech Walesa and the Solidarity party, and the Soviet Union was clearly in fatal freefall. The Cold War that had lasted my entire life and longer was finally over. Now consider this: The tower collapsed in August 1991, the same year the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Warsaw Pact ended. For 23 years, this tower was not only the pride of the USSR, but was the means by which the USSR broadcast its propaganda to the world. The timing of its collapse is nothing if not politically symbolic of the collapse of the Soviet Union it represented. I consider it highly likely that the workers involved were probably anti-Soviet separatists; Poland was the first country to break away from the Pact and the first to assert its independence in 1989. It was the catalyst for further separatist movements in Eastern Europe and the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union that followed it. So the possibility that the workers were separatists who deliberately sabotaged the tower as a symbolic protest against the USSR is not at all remote. The timing and the ramifications are too uncanny to ignore.
Dont understand how there wasnt a redundant wire attachment to hook up an new one to while you replace the old one. That way a wire is never missing during maintenance. Seems pretty obvious to include that in the design.
Wake up. The antenna was not part of the Soviet Union's radio communications. He was in Poland. It was a Polish radio station, not a Soviet one. The antenna was not located in Warsaw, but in Konstantynów.
I apologise for mistakenly labelling it as a Soviet radio mast, for some reason I thought Poland was part of the Soviet Union... geography is not my strong suit. I will do more research next time.
@@Contraflex No, no, we were a seperate country in the Eastern Block (economic/military ties with Russia back then) Thanks for the video. Cool that you're interested in old radio towers 😂😂 Ever thought of becoming a tower technician ? ;) (I think it's a cool thing to do for a living, climb these towers) Anyhow, best wishes to you 😊
@@marcelsmith5176 I am far too scared of heights to ever climb one of these towers... I will stick to simulating them 🤣
Well Poland was still a Soviet satellite state??
@@paul_ko Not in the union of Soviet republics
Thanks to the Warsaw Antenna, the 629-meter KTHI-TV tower in Blanchard, North Dakota has the distinction of twice being the tallest structure on Earth: from its 1963 erection until the Warsaw Antenna's completion in 1974, and then from the Warsaw Antenna's 1991 collapse until Burj Khalifa "topped off" in 2008. The Blanchard tower, now KVLY-DTV, still stands sixty years later.
The Blanchard tower has an amazing legacy.
@@Contraflex Theres a wonderful TV episode on Big Machines, with a HD cameraman going to the top during an antenna replacement. Got a twinge of vertigo just watching it on 720P.
I see theres a nine minute piece on TowerandTurbine channel on UTube.
@@joefish6091 Thanks for sharing the antenna replacement video. What an incredible logistics operation. Those workers definitely earn their pay!
It was made/ constructed correctly- a model of Polish construction- isn’t that an oxymoron?
What do yo really know about polish constructions?
imagine being the person that repairs the lightbulb of the Warsaw radio mast
Balls of Stalinium
@@teebob21 😂
In Soviet Russia you don't change light bulbs, light bulbs change you
@@tomsterbg8130 This was in Poland, not Soviet Russia, Yakov.
Could you imagine if it was just a week before he climbed it to change the bulb?
I would climb it to change a light bulb, only if they allow me to Base Jump off it.
Love the GTA5 pause music
I came to the comments to mention exactly that lol.
@@a.c.2219me too 😂
same
goes hard
Thank you. I knew I had heard this music somewhere before, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
The Burj Khalifa and the Warsaw Tower share something. No restrooms.
You are half correct, apparently the Burj Khalifa isn't connected to Dubai's sewerage network, so wastewater is removed by truck.
@@Contraflex There are emergency facilities but people employed there are expected not to use them while in the building. Ewww
@@Contraflexit was just recently finally connected to the sewerage system. Keep up the good work, it’d be cool to see a video about the upcoming Southbank by Beulah which will be Australia’s tallest building and have the tallest vertical garden in the world.
@@doofer80 Thanks for the idea, I haven't heard of this building so I will definitely do some research on it
So that is why rich Saudis bring white women there to be their personal porta potties...
Underrated content. Nearly forgot Poland had the world's tallest structure before it collapsed. What physics SIM did you use for this?
Thanks for the feedback, this was made using Blender and the "Bullet Constraints Builder" add-on. There is a great tutorial on how to use it by UA-camr "EarthquakeSim".
@@Contraflex for a more advanced simulation you could try using LS-DYNA
@@Contraflexholy crap :0 I was joking in my head saying "pushing the limit of blender by recreating the collapse of this tower" didnt suspect for it to be actually simulated in blender!
There are different stories about the collapse. I personally read of successfully replacing the main rope with two temporary ones, but then hours after workers left the area one of the temporary ropes slipped off of it's clamp, causing the disaster. This is why there were no killed or injuried, as everybody had left the site prior to the collapse. Also I heard that the signal wasn't getting it's way to the Antarctica, but it could have been received in the north and central Africa. The mast was never rebuilt, after years of waiting they finally replaced it with another one (actually an array of two "half-wave" masts) near the city of Solec Kujawski (/solets kooyavski/). You can still receive it at 225 kHz, AM band of course. It's not as powerful as the old one, but I believe it still covers most of Europe and maybe even larger area. Greetings from Poland.
Thank you for the information. I researched this video primarily from the English Wikipedia article, I imagine I would have missed a lot of Polish sources that have more information. Your account of the collapse definitely seems possible and would explain why no one was injured despite the scale of the collapse. I am glad to hear the replacement masts still have such impressive transmission capabilities.
225 kHz? Long waves? I will try to catch up with it on my old radio. One more reason to restore it
@@igorzherebiatev5751 Yes friend that's it. And by now, after the government changed in Poland, there soon will be no more right-wing propaganda in the public radio :)
@@5Dale65wow congratulations with government change
@@5Dale65 they were never right wing
646m, the most extreme spot for skydiving. Too bad it’s now gone. :(
It would not be a good idea to get near that antenna while the transmitter was on
@@brys555 How do you think people climb it and specifically design ladders?
@@tomsterbg8130 It was turned off for maintenance. I wouldn't be for illegal skydiver. Legend says the EM field was so powerful people with amalgam tooth fillings living in nearby villages could hear the radio inside their heads.
WHAT? It wasn't a part of soviet communication network. It was just radio mast for Poles living abroad. There were 10 mln Poles living abroad and Polish goverment wanted them to have abiblity to listen Polish radio. That's all - no soviets were involved in the project.
You are definitely correct. Apologies for the mistake. I foolishly assumed it was Soviet related due to it's proximity to the USSR.
Finally someone did it... greetings From Poland!
At least it (probably) fell within it's own footprint + guy wires.
Yes, the collapse appeared to be localised in a small radius near the base of the tower. If anyone was in the vicinity during the collapse, I'm sure they would have had sufficient time to run away from the base and avoid being struck.
This video is unbelievably underrated
The great pyramid held the title of tallest building far longer than the Empire building.
That's very true, perhaps I should have have clarified that I was talking about the modern era.
I think it's better to use "structure" as the great pyramid wasn't necessarily a building
@Plab1402 the pyramid has an interior, so the blocks at the top is technically considered the roof putting the pyramid in the "building" category
@@Plab1402tallest doohickey?
@@thefancydoge8668An interior not made for human habitation. The pyramids are big fancy coffins.
I bet that must have looked really creepy when it fall like some enormous snake falling to the earth.
I used to pass by the WECT Tower a lot as a child before it was demolished. It was 663 meters tall. I was always amazed by the thought of someone having to climb to the top to service the beacons.
Thank you for sharing, what a shame that it was demolished.
@@Contraflex We brought this on ourselves for not maintaining it properly
*You have just 63 subscribers?? You have great quality content, I am sure with content like this you channel will see some good growth in the time to come* 👍
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Not if his facts are incorrect
Hi
@@AisersOUT
Bot account
I like to remind myself that no matter how bad life may get, at least I don't have to climb that ladder.
It would take forever to ascend that thing. I can’t imagine
@@giygas9305 the tower had a lift but it was very old and slow one. Plus not working during winter
Excellent presentation! I love these kind of computer simulated disaster recreations. Very well done. I feel lucky to be subscriber #310. You're channel will be in the 10's of thousands (and beyond) in no time if you keep this kind of production quality!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I look forward to making more videos when I have the time.
This is a way better production than I was expecting from a small channel. Nice work and narration :)
Narration is ai generated
Thank you for the feedback!
"You built your tower strong & tall, don't you know it had to fall someday." (Townes Van Zandt--Tower Song)
The gta story mode paused music is so calming and you made it in the background music
It's one of my favourite songs as well.
In Poland, we generally liked to broadcast the radio. We had several transmitters capable of transmitting signals far beyond the horizon. And every time some man had to ruin it. (babice transatlantic, several radio broadcasting centers disrupting propaganda radios from the west during the USSR)
Great video! You deserve a lot more subscribers!
Wow, your sub count will skyrocket if you keep producing content like this. Nice work.
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Wow, I was always curious about how this mast collapse looked like. Thanks for creating this simulation!
When I first heard about the collapse, I was surprised no one had simulated it before
That's an insane height for a radio mast. Most of them are nothing even close to that altitude.
It truly is, and maybe we'll never see a taller one built, given the decline of radio.
@@Contraflex Maybe the decline of broadcast AM/FM, but of radio? In the current era of wireless Internet and phone connectivity, I'd say there's more radio than ever.
@@technicalfool Well phones use microwaves if we wanna get more accurate
@@Tacticaviator7 They use all kinds of bands going from microwave right down to UHF. Part of the old analog TV spectrum here (800mhz) is now used for 4G comms.
In any case, theres still a ton of radio spectrum in heavy use, just different use than it was maybe 20-30 years ago.
@@technicalfool well generally "radio" as a term is used for AM/FM transmissions, so it's close enough. Yeah, cell phones still use towers, but I don't think "masts" are being built as commonly as before. We have satellites now, and there's no wider range than a transmission in space.
The guys that changed the lights on that tower had it easy with that elevator. I've met some guys who change light bulbs on towers next to where I live, and they have to climb the side of the towers by hand. After talking with them I was like, "Nope, I'm not in good enough shape to do that." The towers near me are like maybe a third, or a fifth, or an even smaller fraction of the height of that tower, but that's more than I wanna mess with. I wouldn't mind going that high, but not under my own power thanks. :P
The elevator was certainly a handy addition; even so, I wouldn't want to be stuck in that tiny thing for 90 minutes.
@@Contraflex It better have an open end and offer an emergency parachute. No way am I stuck in there for 90 minutes
I'm friends with the engineer that worked at our local TV station. He said their tower has an elevator however I believe he said it only takes you halfway up. You have to climb the rest of the way.
If you climb even a 100 foot ladder you feel it for days, or at least I do. @@badcompany-w6s
@@badcompany-w6s No, ... traditionally, we change a bulb by three men ... two turning a ladder and the third holding the bulb. That's why, to keep the tradition alive, the second half of the tower has no lift.
Looks quite realistic. How does the final wreckage position compare to images of the wreckage of the collapsed tower?
I'm not aware of any images showing the entire footprint of the collapse, but some close up photos show large sections of the tower remained intact, similar to what is seen in this video.
"We'll detach the Cable that needs repairing, and then, attach the temporary support Cable's...."
Even just the idea of it, is enough to tell you that it ain't a good idea, to not have attached the supporting Cable's before, they disconnected the main support Cable
Yes, if that's what really happened then the repair methodology was seriously flawed.
@@Contraflex
The illustration pretty much demonstrated that particular scenario......there was no reference made to any support Cables being attached to the Tower before the damaged Main Cable was released for repair...."if that's what really happened", then..."the repair methodology Was seriously flawed..."
Great Video! Apart from the first part where you said its in the soviet union its a well explained and shown video. I don't see many people talk about this radio mast, barely anyone knows Poland had the tallest structure, so many thanks for sharing! It seems sometimes like inventions from Poland, especially unqiue ones, are supressed by the media and internet.
I like your profile picture and Name.
Steuern sind Raub.
Ciekawe i dobre przedstawienie symulacji upadku masztu.
Poland: "Are ya all building satellites? Weird guys..."
*Casually builds tower to the outer space
GTA5 background music....nice
this story sounds very similar to how the Arecibo Radio Telescope met its demise. The main receiver was held up by steel cables so it could be adjusted around the dish. those cables were left to rust and rot in the Puerto Rican sun for decades without any kind of preventative maintenance. then a few years ago, one of the three cables started to break, and the receiver plunged into the dish. It was a sad day for radio astronomy and astronomy/cosmology in general.
Thank you for sharing. Regular maintenance is crucial for steel structures!
The KVLY mast lost about 75 feet of height in 2019 with the replacement of an antenna. Its neighbor in Galesburg, North Dakota, the KRDK mast, now holds the title of the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, if you don't count the underwater Petronius Platform. KRDK was only 3 feet shorter than KVLY's original height. I should really drive over and see it sometime, since it's in my state.
Thank you for sharing! I would definitely visit it if I was that close
It's honestly incredible how large it was and how it stayed up
came for the radio tower collapse, stayed for the gta v pause music
So many viewers have commented on the music; I'm glad I chose it.
This is the best video I’ve seen of this kind in months. Well done
Thank you so much, I really appreciate your comment.
Amazing video, thanks for making it!
Nicely presented and impressive simulations.
This is fascinating and a great video. I don't understand from an engineering perspective why there wasn't redundancy in the design. It seems like losing one guy wire should not cause an almost immediate catastrophic failure of the structure (I know there were other factors involved, but still). You would think the structure itself should be able to resist some deformation, and that the numerous guy wires are simply there for added stability. But then, I'm not an engineer so what do I know XD
I think under normal loading conditions, the failure of a single guy wire would not cause the entire tower to collapse. However, once the tower was struck by the extreme wind gust while the guy wire was missing, it resulted in the tower being displaced enough to cause progressive collapse. It likely would have been too expensive to design the tower to survive this extremely unlikely scenario; a potentially one in one thousand year wind gust happening at the same time as a guy wire being replaced (which would presumably only take a few hours to replace). Technically the structure could be designed to withstand a one in one thousand year wind gust without any guy wires, but it would require extremely large steel members and would be very expensive; at that point you are no longer designing a guyed mast, you are designing a skyscraper.
there was three levels of redundancy, but apparently that wasn't enough
Amazing animation ! Mesmerizing
Thanks for watching!
Is it possible to validate the result of this simulation against images of the collapsed tower? As someone who has worked with computer simulations, many people assume that a simulation is correct simply because it was done on computer with a visually impressive model, when in reality boundary conditions and assumptions can make enormous differences in how the simulation plays out.
I definitely agree with you. If you put garbage into your simulation/model, you will get garbage out of it. Additionally, if I had chosen a different cable to detach at the start, I'm sure the collapse would have looked entirely different. However, the goal of this simulation was less scientific and moreso for entertainment/educational value. Still, you will see in photos of the real collapse that the mast remained in large undamaged segments as seen in this video.
People who heard the gta 5 pause/map music
Remember me when your famous
My dad took me to see that antenna, back in 89-90, as a kid, seeing the whole structure in a daylight, was almost overwhelming.
Simulations and explanations are top-notch. Great video.
Really like the delve into turbulence and vortex shedding and how this creates resonant oscillations in the tower. My masters dissertation was on vortex generation and shedding but in a quantum fluid of superfluid He4 where the difference between turbulent and laminar regimes is very discrete compared to classical fluids.
Great and interesting video, hope to see more from your channel in future.
Thank you for sharing, that sounds really interesting. Are there any machines or systems where He4 vortex shedding is an important consideration, or was your research more theoretical?
Came for the planes vs building jokes , realised i was too early to find them , i will let teenagers do the job now !
Good thing no one was working on the tower at the moment of collapse
Very lucky indeed!
Great stuff, just keep at it mate!
You'll be one of the biggest infotainment channels on YT if you keep it up for a year or two!
I remember watching first Real Engineering videos and seeing a spark of potential in the creator. I see the exact same thing here!
Note for my future self: I'm the 227th subscriber here )
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, it means a lot! I look forward to making more videos when I have the time.
I believe that more then the wind, removing a set of guy wires on one side would cause a tremendous 'offset' to the others still attached to the tower. Their collective WEIGHT alone would pull the structure over for sure!
That's a very good point, I'm sure the unbalanced lateral forces resulting from the weight of the guy wires would have contributed to the collapse.
Amazing video
GTA 5 pause in the background is amazing, I almost thought it was IV at first 🤣
GTA V pause music nostalgia hits hard but in a good way lol
Combined with tall towers collapsing is fascinating AF.
I'm glad so many people appreciated the background music
I dreamed I was in a skyscraper that collapsed once.... somehow my brain was able to recreate it so accurately I could even feel gravity.
Incredible. Certainly a dream you would never forget.
@@Contraflex I can still recall the sway of the building. As far as a memory goes it feels absolutely like it really happened.
I would expect you to not feel any gravity as you accelerated towards the Earth's surface. :)
@@robertszelepcsenyi3695 Imagine trying to balance on a long slinky pole
Thanks for the wonderful presentation and simulation! 🤘🏼
perfect work man keep going im supporting you 👍
its remind me of BATTLEFIELD 3 caspian border map when the antenna tower fall .... can you make a video about it please ? and thanks
❤
I definitely thought of that BF3 map as well when I made this video. Thanks for the feedback!
That tower would be scary seeing it. Collapsing 😬
This man is underated ¡~¡
why is youtube so unfair
As a polish I have to be honest - you deserve more views here, well done video and well explained. I think it's a shame we caused a disaster like that, the tower could still be standing there today.
Edit: by the way yea, it's a polish tower placed in Poland, np 😅
Thank you for the kind words, I assume you are referencing the Warsaw radio mast video... unless the Poles had something to do with Grollo tower as well 😂
If this collapsed because of one wire out of place. It shows how precarious and unsafe such as structure is.
Such a structure is definitely not as stable as a skyscraper, for example, but it is orders of magnitude cheaper and will rarely have any humans near it who could be harmed if it collapses.
I know about the Warsaw radio mast three years ago
We using the gta v pause background music with this one 🔥
The GTA V pause music fits well with anything
Omg I know that GTA 5 story mode map screen music from 1000 miles away🤣🤣 !!! Many many many many all nighters spent.
I'm glad it brought back some memories for you
him: talking about the background of the tower
me: "ooh, gta 5 air music"
Awesome video! Thank you for your work.
Good explanations and animations! Good luck!
Thank you for the kind feedback 👍
Great video! Really interesting story, and explanation of the science behind it.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
Girls: I can't believe he didn't cry at the Titanic! Do men even have feelings?
Me: ...
🤣🤣🤣
If i could prevent one thing in history from happening, i would have prevented the mast from collapsing
People that just skipped to the end to just see the cool simulation.👇(it was a good video though good job)
I don't blame you for skipping ahead, it's the highlight of the video :)
@@Contraflex Yep
I would absolutely love if you could release the files for this so that somebody could figure out exactly how that would have sounded. God damn it must have been amazing and terrifying
I would be happy to release the Blender file for the simulation if someone is interested... the sound would have been tremendous
@@Contraflex I just wish I had the skills for it
Watching a simulation is not seeing the actual event; you have no idea if this simulation is even accurate without reference footage, and since none exists, you have no idea how accurate this is.
Good point. The end result of the simulation does look similar to some photographs of the collapse.
This is an incredible display of the inevitability of death. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From dust we were made, to dust we will return.
Very true, the lifetime of our structures is nothing in comparison to the age of the ground on which they stand.
imagine base jumping from that lmao
I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried it
From the title I assumed that literally nobody had seen the collapse happen, which would be quite feasible if it had happened in the middle of the night and/or during storm which caused low visibility. Obviously that wasn't the case as it collapsed in the daytime with many eyewitnesses, during active repairs no less, so I find the title to be quite misleading.
You are right, the title is somewhat clickbait. However, the fact that only a handful of people witnessed the collapse of the world's tallest structure at the time, and no one has ever seen a recording of it, is still true.
gta menu music background whaaatattt?
Is that the GTA V menu theme as background music?
Indeed!
So me and heights don’t mix. I’m just now realizing how badly. The animations of the elevator was enough to make my legs feel weird.
Sorry about that! Hope you enjoyed the non-vertigo inducing parts of the video
That have must been crazy
650 meters?!?
Taking an Elevator into basicly nothing but air. Crazy
Many thanks for this video and regards from The Netherlands.
Thanks for watching!
i wonder how much pain someone would have suffered if they climed that thing
The hardest part would be climbing back down again...
I must admit you do pick some awful camera angles for this. particularly at 6:18 and 2:04 They seemed very clumsily framed
I appreciate the detailed feedback from a channel of your size. I will endeavour to improve the framing in future videos. Thanks for watching!
Well that's too bad. I've heard of Tower collapses before and it usually involves somebody trying to do something to the guy wires.
Outstanding work
Thank you so much 😀
My skinny ahh when I trip over
Bonus points since I'm also really tall
"No one has ever seen the world's tallest tower collapse"
9/11: .....
Technically the towers were not the tallest when they collapsed, you make a good point however.
I love how there were people who said that this mast caused health problems to them, eh... the stupidity. Also there is a 36 minute material about that mast in Polish, but it has English subtitles too iirc - its worth to watch it.
Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out
In southwestern missouri we have the KOLR TV mast which is 2000’ tall (609.6M)
I've always suspected that the collapse of this tower was deliberate sabotage. I thought that when I first saw it on the news back in the day. The Cold War I'd grown up in was ending; glasnost and perestroika were the watchwords of the day, the Berlin Wall had fallen, Poland had become a free state under Lech Walesa and the Solidarity party, and the Soviet Union was clearly in fatal freefall. The Cold War that had lasted my entire life and longer was finally over.
Now consider this: The tower collapsed in August 1991, the same year the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Warsaw Pact ended. For 23 years, this tower was not only the pride of the USSR, but was the means by which the USSR broadcast its propaganda to the world.
The timing of its collapse is nothing if not politically symbolic of the collapse of the Soviet Union it represented. I consider it highly likely that the workers involved were probably anti-Soviet separatists; Poland was the first country to break away from the Pact and the first to assert its independence in 1989. It was the catalyst for further separatist movements in Eastern Europe and the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union that followed it.
So the possibility that the workers were separatists who deliberately sabotaged the tower as a symbolic protest against the USSR is not at all remote. The timing and the ramifications are too uncanny to ignore.
That is a fascinating theory and definitely plausible. I think the truth behind the collapse has been lost to history.
Imagine being the poor guy who has to tell his boss what happened
It would be nice if you redid the video so that it didn’t spoil how the ending of the fall would be , just a suggestion
Simulating the tower on a 100% reflective surface makes perception of the tower's height and configuration nearly impossible. It's very distracting.
Thank you for the feedback, I agree. Will keep this in mind for future videos.
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much!
I know I ain’t tripping is that the gta menu music?
You are 100% correct
The GTA pause menu music is on top. Love it. ❤
A radio town is no comparison to a freestanding skyscraper
I agree, there are plenty examples of radio masts collapsing, but very few skyscrapers have collapsed.
The cables are so delicate that several people have been killed...the one tower was in nebraska it allegedly 6 miles tall...but i misread it
Dont understand how there wasnt a redundant wire attachment to hook up an new one to while you replace the old one. That way a wire is never missing during maintenance. Seems pretty obvious to include that in the design.