Because of the power released in a fraction of a second.

Because they’re a blast

They make the cones in the eye exercise.

We are always (as a species) fascinated by whatever posseses greater power than ourselves.
ie: volcanoes, ocean waves, lightning, tornadoes, etc.

Anything the explodes is intended to destroy including fireworks. I watched the pain and agony a quarter stick of dynamite can do to a friends left hand and the horror of his new wife frantically looking for her husbands ring finger.

^That’s a bummer.

That ring was expensive, after all.

@ragingloli Expensive, painful, and insurance paid him a shitload of money for his loss. Either way the outcome was much better than the 6 ten year olds who lit the fuse on their dad’s 4 year old stick of dynamite who were all huddled around the “firecracker” looking down at it wondering why it didn’t explode. My friend saw what was going on and he grabbed the fireworks to throw it out of harms way and it blew his hand off instead of the faces of those young kids. Saved 6 young kids from horrific injuries. Go ahead savor and make your heinous fun of the moment.

Darwin is rotating in his grave.

Loli, you are in true form today.
How I have missed you!

For me, explosions have a similar effect as fire, the ocean, running water, and other kinetic phenomena. Parts of our brains and senses are wired to track and understand what is happening in the world around us, and mostly not much happens for it to get engaged with. Things we don’t understand get our attention. An explosion is an unusual and rich spectacle of events, so it fires up that part of the nervous system, resulting in stimulation and resulting feelings and emotions because our nervous systems react in cascading effects.

It’s a bit like the way cats react to motion, though they’re more into prey-like motion and have an escape-immediately reaction to sudden violent things that they aren’t causing themselves.

With that in mind, see if you don’t have similar appreciation for watching these little animations , which are mostly non-explosive chemical reactions.

Oh, and of course, this.

It’s big, loud, flashy, and somewhat scares you a bit. (kinda like ‘Muricans)
As long as you keep your distance, it’s awesome.

@Cruiser . Out of curiosity, why did your friend have a stick of dynamite?

My state gas pretty lax laws about firearms, but even here it’s hard to get ahold of dynamite.

I think I’ve seen it used for stump removal. I’ve also seen it used to blow up a whale carcass on the beach.

@MrGrimm888 My friend did not have the ¼ stick his neighbor did. It was in a drawer in his neighbors garage plus it was a years old firework on top of it. This group of 10 year olds found it and lit the fuse. It did not explode and my friend came upon the scene saw these kids in a circle around the firework and said WTF are you kid DOING? He grabbed the firework and right when he went to throw it away it blew up in his hand. I can’t imagine what would have happened to all those young boys had he not done what he did.

@Cruiser Not to be insensitive to the horrible effect on your friend’s hand, but if it blew up in his hand, how did that actually end up helping the boys not get hurt? Less fragments and less concentrated shockwave from exploding above ground rather than on it?

@Zaku Those kids were on their hands and knees leaning over the unexploded firework and had it gone off I can only imagine the damage if would have done to those boys. Loss of eye sight, loss of hearing, burns would have been very likely. at a minimum.

I love a good bang ;-}

@Cruiser I see, thanks.

@Zaku In case you are curious this a ¼ stick blowing up.

Explosives are dangerous… As mentioned above, I guess that’s part of the attraction.

I don’t know about awesome but…...
<——I used one for years.