Reply #188: Your thought experiment is reasonable except for one thing

[LARED]

during the collapse the materials that fell into the building not only collapse the floors beneath them but they also "collect" debris inside the volume of the tower. Meaning there was likely a mass of materials, perhaps ten stories worth or more, inside the structure acting as a chaotic mass in both a downward and horizontal direction. The effect of this is to act as a force pushing the perimeter walls outward as they were forced off or were sloughed off.

This outward force must be accounted for if you want a "balanced equation" I know of no way to quantify this force. Many CT'er already assume any horizontal force observed is proof of explosives.