ok about the m-class fireworks?

Question

like m-80's, m-2000's (there are m-2000's and m-2002's right?), m-100's

is it true that as the number gets smaller its more powerful or is it the other way around?

Answer 1

No, it is neither way around. There is a limit as to how many grams those things can contain. The numbering schemes are just various manufacturers trying to outdo one another.
An M-1000 has as much gun powder as an "M-80" (the legal kind) or an M-60 or M-100. They are all limited by law to a certain # of grams.

I used to buy the real sh*t back in the day, when you could get it in Little Italy in NYC. You hear one of these M-whatevers these days and they pale in comparison to a true M-80. I remember those used to sell for $1 a piece in Little Italy.

A blockbuster, forget it. Those things you could hear for miles and would make a nice sized divot in your lawn. Those things were $5 a pop.

Then, the mother of all things you could buy in Little Italy were the pineapples or half-sticks or whatever they used to call them. No joke, they were the size of a the cardboard tube in a roll of toilet paper. 10 bucks a pop. Those things were serious, they would rip a nice hole in the lawn and send dirt and grass and rocks and crap flying for like 30 feet. My dad was around one day when we lit one off. He had been a Ranger in the army and had worked with explosives. His reaction when we lit the thing "Holy Sh!t, that was powerful."

After Guiliani became mayor and cracked down on all the sales of fireworks, and even more so after Sept. 11, you absolutely cannot get real M-80s or anything larger anywhere here in the USA. Just the sissy little M-whatevers they sell in the store.