No! to Backyard Fireworks

[DanaC]

I posit it's fear of the unknown, because you have never learned how to handle them and how you really have to screw up to get hurt.

More importantly, Bruce, I am aware of how little you have to screw up for someone to get hurt. My mum still has the scar from the rocket that went into her stomach when she was 8. Not, I might point out, because people were messing about and acting unsafely, but at a small neighbourhood display when the rocket slipped down just before it launched.

I have handled fireworks. I have handled them for my niece's sake. I still hate them :P

@ 3foot: indoor fireworks were a fad during the late-70s and 80s. They are not explosive lol. There's one that sits there as a little pyramid and when you light it it fizzes and turns into a volcano effect. Another one you set alight and it spews stuff out in a snake shape......oh and of course the ubiquitous sparklers

http://www.fireworksarcade.co.uk/indoor-fireworks.html

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I have handled fireworks. I have handled them for my niece's sake. I still hate them :P

Well, you're going to be a big help when the revolution comes.

[DanaC]

*grins* I've already decided my role in the revolution will be that of Sleeper :P



as an aside: I am actually far more comfortable handling guns than fireworks.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well glory be... next you'll be telling us you chew tobacco, too?

[DanaC]

*grins* nope, but I do have a fondness for rough shag (tobacco:P)

[bluecuracao]

I've always loved fireworks, but I don't understand these dumbasses who miss/ignore the concept of bottle rockets.

When I was a kid, adults would actually put them in bottles before lighting them, make us all stand back, and the rockets would go off on a specific trajectory before exploding.

Now, there are idiots who think it's fun to light the the bottle rockets while they're in hand, and throw them. Woo hoo, they go all over the place, and you have no idea where they're going to end up. Ha ha, look at everyone run away, trying to avoid getting burned.

[BrianR]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I think you snoozed through physics class, Brian. If you shoot a bullet straight up in the air, it loses its energy at the apogee of its arc. When it reaches the ground it is going just as fast as when it left the barrel. A flat trajectory, not so.

Incorrect, although the bullet will regain some momentum, it will not regain it all. Yes, there is a moment a the top of the arc when the bullet is motionless, and there is an acceleration curve on the way down, the final velocity is nowhere near the initial velocity. Had I not snoozed through physics, I could even offer equations to prove this. Someone else will have to do it for me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

32 ft per second squared, but ya gotta know how high it went.

[Clodfobble]

It goes as high as it can get with -32 ft/sec squared pulling down on it, and thus it has that same distance and time to re-accelerate on its way back down. The only way it would not match its initial velocity when it comes back down is if it hits terminal velocity for a piece of metal that size and weight.

[HungLikeJesus]

Except that it will be loosing energy due to wind resistance in both directions.

[Sundae]

For the record I LOVE fireworks.

We only had a backyard show one year - because of cost mainly. We stood well back with Mum, while Dad lit them. I was terrified for him, but enjoyed the danger. Daddies are immortal when you are 7. Both Blue Peter and Mum impressed on us solemnly that you should never touch a firework that hasn't gone off. Even 5 years later. It WILL go off the second it is picked up. Fireworks are malevolent and live mostly to damage children.

Anyway, Dad had carefully nailed up the Catherine Wheel at the bottom of the garden. But it fulfilled its true aim and came free, spinning into the neighbour's garden where sundry children and adults had gathered to watch, and chased Susan Saunders up the path.

She was fine, it was just mild shock. In fact Dad had a habit of damaging the Saunders' children. One Halloween he took to hiding in the shadows when the door was opened, wearing my little brother's werewolf mask and jumping out with his fabulous spooky laugh (practised on us for years to spine-chilling effect). Laura Saunders screamed and ran back up the path in tears - Dad had to go out and show her the mask and apologise before she calmed down. She was about 12.

After the one home fireworks show we didn't have any more. We used to get bundled up in 12 layers of clothes and our wellies (November is Bonfire Night here) and go and watch the Round Table show from the other side of the hedge, so we didn't have to pay entry. I was cold but spellbound. Perhaps because it was forbidden fruit - we could hear the fair, smell the hotdogs and see the fireworks, but it wasn't for the likes of us. I always wondered how come we never get any money from the Round Table. We were too poor to go to any of their events - surely that made us poor enough to get something free?

Anyway - I work for a company with a fireworks division. They also use a lot of pyrotechnics in shows. I love it - I think it's the coollest thing ever.

I completely understand your feelings Cloud. And I agree if it's illegal or dangerous (dry conditions) then it shouldn't happen. But legal, carefully supervised and controlled I think it's a great part of growing up and of our descreet cultural identities. Although if pushed I'd admit a public event is the best option. Just take your own sparklers.

Oh and anyone caught with illegal fireworks should be taken to visit Burns Wards. And I don't mean the haggis and neeps type.

[HungLikeJesus]

It's dry in Denver this year. From a local news source:

DOUGLAS COUNTY - Firefighters responded to nearly a half-dozen fires along the Front Range Friday, including several in Douglas County.

Investigators believe two adults in their 20s fired off a bottle rocket that started a fire in an open space near Broadway and Highlands Ranch Parkway. The fire burned through one neighboring home's backyard fence and up to the home, burning an outside wall and melting the air conditioning unit.
...
Investigators say the people responsible for setting off the bottle rocket don't live in the neighborhood but were visiting friends. They're not being identified until charges are filed.
...
By 8 p.m. Friday, local fire departments had contained a 20-acre brush fire near Griggs Road and South Daniels Park Road.
...
In Denver, neighbors helped save a handful of homes from a grass fire. Residents used garden hoses to fight the flames near 11th and Utica. The fire is estimated to have charred about five acres. Firefighters believe fireworks might have started that fire.

Fireworks are also believed to have started an open area fire in Arapahoe County.

[zippyt]

I was encouraged to play with fire works ( Saftley ) by my Mom , she showed me how , Lots of fun !!!

Then as I got older , bottle rocket fights , Building a Model air plane just to BLAST it !!! Of course this was when it was ok to give yer kids BB Guns to PLAY with .

Then My mom and her friend standing in our car port ( with a Scotch in hand ) shooting Roman candles at us kids as we ran screaming in the cove !! ( and yes I have heard this story Told by a stranger , Incredulously recounting a story heard from a friend , I Just stand there Nodding my head , and say ( after they are thru ) " That was My Mom , and I was one of the kids !! "

Good times I tells ya, Good times !!!!

[busterb]

2 lbs. black power is the way to go.

[zippyt]

Now the question IS buster ,
How Far UP does that make an Anvil Fly ???