WTC FREE FALL?

Anyone who's spent more than an hour listening to a ranting truther has doubtlessly heard the claim about the WTC collapsing at or near free fall velocity. They often use this claim along with a misunderstanding of Conservation of Momentum to construct yet another bold and asinine claim:

"The official story defies the laws of physics!"  

Oh Yeah?

If you paid attention during 7th grade science class you might remember that objects constantly accelerate as they fall until they reach terminal velocity. So, what constitutes "near free fall" speed? To illustrate, I could point you to any number of credible research papers on the subject¹ - but I've noticed that nothing gets a truther to close their PDF browser faster than a peer reviewed paper with mathematics. Fortunately, the free fall concept is fundamental enough that it doesn't require rigorous analysis to show why truthers need to outright drop this claim.