16 things that can baffle anyone (29 photos)

Knowledgeable users post questions to the "What is this thing" community on Reddit, which is a great example of the power of collective knowledge. Some users post their findings, while others answer what this is for and what to do with it. You can find answers even in seemingly dead-end situations, and 16 such answers to difficult questions await you further.





Question: “Found on the grass in a suburban business park. Light, like paper or dried mud, it crumbles easily, but retains its shape in water. Square holes go right through"



Answer: "It's part of the catalytic converter core."





Question: “I recently moved into an old house, there are two such “sockets” in the house with such strange devices behind them. What are these things?



Answer: “These are two motion sensors of the alarm system. They must be located directly opposite each other to provide electronic indication of tripping.”

Originally Answered: Wow, I didn't even notice that these things are right across from each other on opposite sides of the house, but your answer made me go and check, and they are! There is a long corridor and several rooms between them, but they are within sight of each other.”

Question: “Large sand table in the basement of a home for sale in New Jersey. Over 3 meters long, several curved metal rods or pipes on the sides and a "bridge" in the middle. On the right in the picture is a moving conveyor belt thing. This is all the information I have."



Answer: “This is a training ground for playing with radio-controlled mini-equipment”



There are adults who like to get together and operate mini radio-controlled equipment to simulate construction work. One can only be amazed at such a variety of miniature equipment: trucks, dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers and even excavators with hydraulic hammers.

By the way, the “curved metal rods or pipes on the sides” that were written about in the question are models of street lamps.

Question: “Pull-out board with holes on both sides of the sofa”



Answer: “This is a pull-out table into the holes of which a tray with corresponding pins is installed. After eating, you can take the tray back to the kitchen and push the coasters inside so they are out of the way.”

Question: “Golden jewelry with an arch and a crystal in the middle. My wife found it at a thrift store and I feel like it has something to do with religion."



Answer: “This is a vessel for serving pickles, from which the jar and lid have been removed.”



Users even managed to find where the “crystal” was borrowed from, which, it seems, someone decorated with “notches”



Someone was smart and turned it all into a mysterious decoration.

Question: “What is this tooth on this hammer for?”



Answer: “This is for holding and leveling the boards during the construction of structures.”



Question: “A piece of brass and possibly lead embedded in a piece of planed wood. It's been sitting on the shelf for years and I have no idea what it could be. The wood is maple, possibly from Vermont, which ended up in a flooring plant in Ontario. At first I thought it was a bullet, but I didn’t understand why there was brass in the middle.”



Answer: “This is a bullet, someone shot at a tree and cut it along the trajectory of the shot. The rough part in the wood is the path of the bullet.”

If you can't see the bullet in that metal dog nose, it's because it was a hollow point bullet, which are commonly used in hunting.

Question: "What is that manhole I've seen on the outside of houses in the UK?"



Answer: “This is a shoe scraper to remove dirt before entering the house. The recess seems to have been filled with bricks.”



Now it's just a decorative element.

Question: “Housewarming gift. It's made of half wood, half marble, and has two indentations and a mini spoon. What the hell is this?



Answer: “This is for salt and pepper.”



Question: “These two things fell to the ground right after a large plane flew low over my house. They have a sandy texture and are elastic, almost like dried paint. They also have a strong sweet smell."



Answer: “This is dried fire extinguishing powder that fell from a firefighting aircraft.”



Question: “What are those glass things attached to the ceiling? They are all over the house at the windows. The house was built in 2010-2015"



Answer: “This is a partition between fire sprinklers located close to each other. Cold water from one sprinkler can get into another, causing it to simply not work.”

According to American requirements for residential premises, fire sprinklers cannot be located closer than 2.5 meters to each other.

Question: “A small door in a closet with a spoon-shaped device attached to a hinge. Located in an old house from 1928"



Answer: “This is to hold toilet paper, which in the past came in sheets. A spoon-shaped device pressed down a stack of paper.”

Question: “Made of wood, inside is a cylinder with sharp spikes. I think it’s for grinding, but what could it grind?”



Answer: “It’s a cheese grater.”



The door opens, a piece of cheese is placed inside, after which it is pressed against the same door. Then you just need to twist the handle and collect small pieces of cheese that fall into the lower part of the grater.

Question: “Found this at work today, left by the night employee. I just want to know what it is. Solid, nothing opens. A small glass container with a golden edging on one side"



Answer: “These are pistons from glass syringes.”



Question: “Small Kodak box with cubes and disks. Probably given to someone who worked at the Kodak plant before the 1990s. Some kind of game?



Answer: "It's a board game called 421"



A rather unusual game in which you need to roll three dice at a time and add up combinations from the values ​​that fall out. Whoever has the best combination gets a certain number of chips. It is not difficult to guess that the strongest combination is 421.

Question: “Found this in our new house near the basement stairs. It's at the top end of the wall."



Answer: “This is a holder for handles of brooms, brooms and mops”