History isn't only about "history," there is plenty of fascinating math and science to look at.
The World Trade Center was a highly unique building in many ways. The western half of the World Trade Center, including the foundations of both towers, was built on a gigantic “bathtub” - a massive concrete “bowl” which sat in an area of Manhattan Island that had once been part of the Hudson River. This “bowl” kept river water from seeping into the complex. In addition, the World Trade Center towers had no columns inside to hold them up. It was a unique engineering idea with a “core” of concrete which included elevators, stairways, plumbing, air-conditioning, etc., and an exterior grid of steel. The buildings worked against the high winds which can sweep around New York by flexing, each tower actually could sway over 20 feet back and forth at the top. Most elevator shafts in the towers had 3 elevators within them, linking “skylobbies” on upper floors to the ground level. Workers would take “express” elevators to a “skylobby” and transfer to a “local elevator” to their office floor, much like New York City subway riders take express and locals trains. The World Trade Center was so big that it had 3 separate zip codes.
Interesting facts: 16 acres of ground, foundation 60 feet below ground, One World Trade Center was six feet taller than Two World Trade Center, and with its 347 foot television broadcast antenna was still technically the World’s Tallest Building.
The Pentagon is another amazing building. The world’s single largest office building, the Pentagon, just outside of Washington, DC in Arlington, VA usually houses about 26,000 workers on a typical day, most of whom are members of the United States Military, for which the Pentagon serves as headquarters. The building is only 5 stories tall, but covers 28.7 acres with a central courtyard over 5 acres. It was built in just two years, beginning on September 11, 1941 - just before the United States entered World War II. One reason that the Pentagon covers much area but is not a tall building is that the government wanted it to use very little steel, which was needed to build ships and tanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_%28building%29
Math questions:
1. The Pentagon and One World Trade Center were both designed for roughly the same number of workers, but structurally, architecturally, and “imprint on the land” are almost as different as possible. Consider the different ways we organize the spaces we use. If you had to build a school with 5,000 square feet, how would you arrange that?
2. How tall was One World Trade Center? Can you measure that distance out along the ground? What is the tallest building in your community? in your state? Can you measure the height of your school? Can you measure how many square feet, or square meters, your school is?
3. How would you figure out how much space an office worker needs? How might you decide how many restrooms a building needs for a certain number of workers? water fountains? doors? elevators?
4. Can you try to figure out how many cubic feet of air there is in the Pentagon? was in One World Trade Center?
Science questions:
1. The “bathtub” at the World Trade Center site was designed to keep Hudson River water from entering the basement areas of the building. Can you design an experiment to see how water moves through soil?
2. The Hudson River at the World Trade Center is tidal, which means that water not only flows from the north to the south, but when the tide is coming in, the water flows south to north. What about rivers in your community? Which direction do they flow? Do you have tides where you live? What creates tides?
3. When the World Trade Center collapsed, it fell because the steel “failed.” Can you find out what makes steel “fail”? In a fire, will steel melt? How do architects and engineers protect steel?