What makes pipe bombs so dangerous compared to other improvised explosives?
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Two things. Burst strength and shrapnel.
Think about the loud pop when a balloon breaks vs letting the air out slowly. Containing the explosion in the pipe until it reaches the rupture pressure for the pipe concentrates the force of lower power explosives into more like a pop than a woosh. This is similar to why fireworks that go pop are contained in a tube that’s designed to break.
When the pipe reaches its burst strength, it’s going to come apart, and those bits of metal are going to go flying. While some pipe bombs contain additional shrapnel, the metal pipe itself becomes dangerous.
If you’ve ever watched a video of a flintlock rifle being shot, that initial poof next to the operators head is uncontained gunpowder burning, but the bullet going flying is all of that force being contained and released in a focused way. Granted those are different volumes, but the whoosh by your head is significantly safer than the metal bit sent flying by a contained explosion.
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