18 Everyday Things You Never Knew Even Had A Purpose

1. Think the hole in the lid keeps the ballpoint from drying out?

A lot of people think the hole in the cap of a ballpoint pen is there to keep the pen from drying out, or that it's there to keep a pressure balance that prevents the pen from leaking. The real reason it's there is much more straightforward:

It's there to lower the risk of suffocation. If a small child was chewing on the cap and choked on it, the hole keeps their airway from closing up entirely.

2. Ever notice the little holes in the windows of airplanes?

That little hole is there for two reasons:

The first reason is to compensate for air pressure. When the plane climbs to cruising altitude, there's a huge pressure difference between the inside and outside of the plane. The hole is there to regulate some of that difference so that the outer window doesn't have to do all the work.

The other reason is that it prevents the windows from fogging up.

3. The little pocket on your jeans.

The purpose of that little pocket is obvious to any Wild West cowboys or 19th-century gold miners reading this. It's where you kept your pocket watch when jeans were first invented.

4. The studs on your jeans.

When Levi Strauss made his first pair of jeans, it was a pretty common problem for the seams of the trousers to tear due to the stress being put on them by the workmen and miners who wore them.

The rivets just exist to strengthen the trousers at the most conspicuous spots .

5. What are those little holes in Converse All Stars there for?

The main reason they're there is the most obvious one: ventilation.

But some people think that because Converse All Stars were originally made as basketball shoes, but they are not.

6. Have You Ever noticed the little hole at the end of a tape measure? Ever wonder what it's for?

It's there to hook onto nails or screws so you can measure safely without the tape measure slipping.

7. That hole in the handle of your pot is not there for decoration.

Aside using the holes to hang the pots they are also use to hang the cooking spoon to avoid staining the pot. 

8. The hole on your pasta spoon

The primary purpose of the hole is to strain the pasta and let the water drain out. 

9. That arrow next to your gas gauge is telling you something you never thought of

It indicates which side of the car the gas cap is on. which most people don't know. 

10. Why is one side of a bobby pin bent into a zigzag?

The grooved side is the bottom of the pin and should face toward the scalp. The grooves help the hairpin hold the hair better.

11. Ever notice a little hole in the bottom of a padlock?

First the hole is there to drain water out of the padlock if you are using it outdoors, the hole is also used to oil the lock to avoid friction or rust. 

12. The thick bit found on many cables 

Those little cylinder-shaped lumps are ferrite cores or chokes, and they're essentially just chunks of magnetic iron oxide that are there to suppress high-frequency electromagnetic interference.

Have you ever heard weird interference when your cell phone goes off too close to a speaker? Well, ferrite cores are there to keep that from happening to your monitors, power supplies, and everything else.

13. Why do some caps have a little spike in them?

The little spike is to punch right through the protective foil on a new container. 

14. The little bumps on the "F" and "J" keys on a keyboard

The little bumps let you find your way back to the home position without looking down at your keyboard.

15. What about the hole found in rulers?

Easy. It's for hanging them up.

16. Why does an Apple power cable have wings?

 

The wings flip up to give you something to wrap the cable around. Start by wrapping the thicker section of cable around the power block, then the thinner part of the cable around the wings, and secure the whole thing with the little clamp on the very end.

17. what's the dot next to the camera on an iPhone for?

It's a microphone for when you're using the back camera.

18. why do wine and champagne bottles have those indentations in the bottom?

It's actually there to compensate for the pressure that the contents of the bottle go through during the corking process. The sides and bottoms of bottles are weak spots, and the indentation helps evenly distribute the pressure inside the bottle. That's why it's so much deeper on champagne bottles, which are under much more pressure due to the carbonation.