10 Everyday Items You Never Knew Had A Purpose

That hole in the top of ballpoint pen lids

It's not there to keep the pen from drying out - which is what a lot of people think. They also think it's there to keep a pressure balance and stop 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.

That 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.

Those little 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.

Those little holes in the side of Converse shoes

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But some people think that because Converse All Stars were originally made as basketball shoes, laces could be looped through the extra holes for a snugger fit.

And the hole on your pasta spoon?

This one is going to blow your mind. The hole’s primary purpose to strain the pasta and let the water drain out, but on many spoons, the hole is just about the size of one person’s portion of spaghetti.

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

That’s an easy one! The grooved side is the bottom of the pin and should face toward the scalp. The grooves help the hairpin hold the hair better.

What about this 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.

What is that dot next to the camera there for?

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

And the little disc under the lid of a plastic bottle?

Have you ever pried one of them out and found that your bottle still closes fine? What purpose could they possibly serve then?

They’re there to create a seal that keeps EVERYTHING in that bottle, both liquid and carbonation. Without it, that soda would go flat in no time.

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

It’s not there so that the sommelier can get a better grip while they’re pouring, which is probably what you’ve always heard.

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.