|Question 23Verbal

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Throughout history, tall structures such as Ruwanwelisaya in Sri Lanka or the Minarets of Selimiye Mosque in Turkey have posed a challenge to their architects, since these structures are more susceptible to physical forces than smaller structures. For example, the lower floors of a building must be able to support the enormous weight of the upper floors. To test a hypothesis that steel is more suitable than concrete for construction of a tall building's lower floors, researchers created a computer model of two buildings that were identical except that one had concrete lower floors while one had steel lower floors, and simulated the effects of the forces of wind and gravity on those structures over the course of a century.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the researchers' hypothesis?
At the end of the simulation, the structure with steel lower floors had slightly larger dimensions at its base than it did at the beginning of the simulation.
A
During the simulation, the structure with steel lower floors bent in high wind to a greater degree than did the structure with concrete lower floors.
B
During the simulation, when sudden forces caused vibrations in the structures, those vibrations took longer to disappear in the structure with steel lower floors than in the structure with concrete lower floors.
C
At the end of the simulation, the structure with concrete lower floors was several inches shorter than the structure with steel lower floors.
D