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Comment by baq | Hacker News Reader

> I wonder what about the design makes it a rocket compared to what I would assume is a pretty standard design?

Injuries nonwithstanding, the quality of the seal means it was an exceptionally well designed item for the purpose of storing 99% water.

side note: there's a reason you get a visit from the FBI if you buy ten pressure cookers (e.g. if you find a great Black Friday deal and have a large family and plan Christmas gifts...)

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I’ve exhausted the branches of my imagination, what is the danger of 10 pressure cookers?

You can make bombs out of pressure cookers. Since they are so good at holding pressure, you seal off the over-pressure release valves and then pressurize them until they burst (usually via some stupid or illegal means to begin with) then when they burst there is a ton of excess pressure. Big pressure = big boom.

They are exactly as good as any other pot made of 18/10 steel with similar thickness. Other vessels like propane tanks are much better.

Boston marathon worked because - well pressure cookers at the time didn't draw much attention to them.

But if you're not working with cutting torches and welding equipment, there's no easy way to open a propane tank enough to put an explosive in it (assuming purely amateur equipment) and then seal it up again good enough to hold high pressure. A pressure cooker on the other hand is ready made to have a big opening to put lots of stuff inside and then seal it up again.

there's tons of material online from religious radical groups on how to turn one into an IED

e.g https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspire_(magazine)

"Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom" sounds like the beginning of a teenager's bad joke

under no circumstances should you google the anarchist's cookbook

They make great bombs.

Find me a news story about a person who got a visit from the FBI after buying 10 pressure cookers.

That beggars the imagination. You think the FBI is monitoring the sales of every restaurant supply store?

Here's a story in the Guardian about a women who was visited by local police in New York after her family searched for pressure cookers and backpacks.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/new-york-polic...

Though it turns out the truth might be more complicated and it may have been her husbands employer triggering the search, not the FBI? https://www.darkreading.com/cyber-risk/pressure-cooker-flap-...

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