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People in disbelief after seeing video of how power plants are demolished

People in disbelief after seeing video of how power plants are demolished

This doesn't feel like the safest way of doing things.

You'd like to think that every structure we build now will be used for decades to come.

Still, on some level, we all know that isn't really true, and the fact is that buildings get demolished every day - whether it's a crumbling apartment block or the massive cooling tower of a power plant.

That latter idea isn't from nowhere, though - it's the center of a viral clip posted on YouTube a couple of years ago by NBC News.

The video shows the destruction of four huge cooling towers in the UK, ones that have that classic hourglass shape (like the ones Homer Simpson works in).

The video doesn't beat around the bush, either, starting with the four towers immediately collapsing after controlled detonations around their bases.

Enjoyably, you also get to see the explosions and collapses from a fair few angles, as they've been filmed from a whole bunch of different cameras. This even includes a view from directly over them, which must have been filmed with a drone.

This also lets you see the interesting physics at play as the entire towers crumble - and sort of fold in on themselves as they do so.

At around the 50-second point they look like crumpled pieces of paper, rather than huge brick-and-mortar constructions tumbling down.

Then, once each structure hits the ground, an absolutely massive dust cloud pours out from it, making it clear that you wouldn't want to be anywhere near this process.

Eduardo Ramos Castaneda / Getty
Eduardo Ramos Castaneda / Getty

This quartet of demolitions seems to be about as clean as you could hope for, which has been noticed by viewers in the comments under that YouTube video, with one person writing: "Perfect job, everything landed within the towers footprint. I guess they've had a bit of practice with many more to go."

Someone else wrote a slightly funnier comment about this sort of demolition: "It never fails in every one of these explosions there is always birds who fly off scared out of their wits."

Others have observed how this sort of remote detonation seems like by far the safest way to do things, especially since you'll occasionally see a grainier style of viral video where someone demolishes a building in a more up close and personal way.

That way of doing things, whether it's with an excavator or a simple sledgehammer, is clearly dangerous compared to this more well-planned option. This also has the benefit of allowing people to get well clear of the blast zone before it ever detonates.

Happily, in this case, things seemed to go smoothly, at least, so we can only sit back and be amazed at the video and its many, many angles.

Featured Image Credit: NBC News

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