17 Hidden Product Purposes Even Your Parents Don’t Know

So, you’re hungry, but not quite ready to eat a 3-course meal just yet? How about some instant noodles instead? Ah, the water’s boiled.

Your tummy’s rumbling, but there’s a problem. The styrofoam cup’s broken and the noodles are exposed! Wait... Is that a space at the bottom of the cup? Why?

That space is for protecting the noodles, it’s not the company trying to save money or anything. Notice how the ramen in cups is hardly ever broken, but the one in the packet comes out looking like a mess.

This technique is called a middle suspension. The noodles are packed in tightly to stop them from getting crushed in the delivery truck. It’s not just about the noodles looking nice and long. It also helps those tasty noodles soften more evenly!

Morning breath isn’t the best, luckily there’s an easy way to get rid of it! It would’ve been easy to think that mouthwash was invented for...washing your mouth. Well... Mouthwash was originally invented and sold as floor cleaners!

It was sold to hospitals as an antiseptic for years. It never really took off. Some genius in marketing rebranded it as mouthwash, the rest is minty fresh history! So, after you’ve cleaned your teeth, just remember, rebranding can be pretty powerful!

It’s hard to imagine a world without the internet these days. No streaming, no online games, or pictures of cute little kittens! Yeah, that’s not what it was designed for, but who cares, right? The prototype internet was called ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network.

This machine was very sensitive. To stop anyone from turning it off, some clever scientist stuck a piece of paper on it with these powerful words: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!!” It was written in red ink, nice touch!

Having your professor scribbling in the margins of your notebook isn’t exactly new. Except that margins weren’t designed for that! They’re rat protection! Back in the day, rats would nibble on paper all the time, so if you wrote something on the edge of the paper, it ended up inside a hungry rat!

A couple of well-placed lines stopped your best answers from getting eaten! Hey, I can’t finish this pizza! Time to cover up those leftovers. Luckily, I have plenty of plastic wrap. A little tug... and the roll just jumped out! Prison break!

If you look at the wrap’s home, the long, thin box, there’s a special little feature that can help you. A cardboard tab on each end! Push’em in and the roll’s not going anywhere! Strange that I’ve never seen them before!

It’s lunchtime! I’m feeling like a California roll today! Seaweed, rice, cucumber, avocado, and crab meat. Or is it? It’s actually imitation crab meat. It’s basically cheap white fish blended with sugar. The fish mixture is then heated and pressed into shape. Yummy! That’s maybe why it’s called the hot dog of the sea. Nah, I just made that up.

Your microwave has a secret that we’ve all seen, but never paid attention to. That black mesh you see on the door is a Faraday cage! It stops the electromagnetic energy, or... the microwaves, from escaping. And cooking you too. That’s how it heats up your food so quickly!

Every microwave has to have one, and they all vary in quality. This Faraday cage can even stop signals from your phone...which I guess is useful. Hey, you don’t need your popcorn to stop popping in order to take a call, do you? Airplane mode’s a bit easier though.

Ever taken an IQ test and realized you’re Einstein level smart? Me neither. The median IQ is only 100... plus there’s very little evidence that Einstein ever even took the test! In the beginning, most people thought the tests were too vague to be helpful in any way. The test was designed for children who needed help with their studies. Later they realized it could be adapted to identify intelligence. But it was never originally designed for that!

Hey, never popped bubble wrap? You’re missing out! And you guessed it, it was never meant to be popped or used the way we use it today. It was invented as a new, textured wallpaper. By sealing 2 shower curtains together, they created the first bubbles!

The idea never really took off, obviously. After failing as wallpaper, it discovered its true meaning in life. It could protect sensitive items. When the first computers were getting shipped, bubble wrap was there to help! Imagine a house with bubble-wrap wallpaper in every room!

If you owned one of the biggest companies in the world, selling one of the most known products on the planet, how would you keep your company’s secret... a secret? The formula for coca-cola isn’t patented! The first recipe was, but when they made changes, no patent ever went through. The secret formula is still only known by a few people at the company. Not only that, but not even Coca-Cola’s rival wants the recipe! In 2006, a disgruntled employee tried to sell off the secret. But it didn’t work.

Hey, take a look at your brand-new mattress, do you see the “Do Not Remove under Penalty of Law” tag? That thing looks pretty serious! Good news though, the tags aren’t meant for you, they’re aimed at the mattress seller! A hundred years ago, mattress makers used to create the filling with basically anything! Animal hair, old hospital beds, or clothing. Then, strict laws stopped old hospital beds from being used. Their mattresses were filled with germs!

Now, on a rainy day, Play-Doh is something everyone can make at home! Mash up some flour, water, salt, food coloring, and wham! Any creative person is amused for hours. Cheap, clean, non-toxic...the perfect modeling clay.

It was never made for that though. This stuff was originally for cleaning up walls, in the ’30s! That’s because people started going crazy for wallpaper, which you couldn’t use soap and water on. Eventually, Play-Doh had to find a new home.

Now, have you finished a lollipop and noticed a hole in the stick? This hole isn’t just for show, or to make a musical instrument with after you’re done. It’s there to keep that tasty sweet treat from falling off! While the candy’s still hot, it’s poured into a mold. As it hardens, the candy flows into the hole and creates an anchor.

Not into lollipops? How about good old American Gummy Bears? Unfortunately, they aren’t American at all! They’re German. A German Company started making them in 1922.

The original name was, gummi... something. Anyway... They got the inspiration from real dancing bears at live shows. These treats eventually made it all the way around the world.

Ever wondered what those little bumps were for on the F and J keys on your keyboard? These little raised ridges are to help your index fingers be in the best possible spot for lightning-fast typing. Keep those fingers on F and J. It makes it way easier to reach all the keys, especially if you don’t look at the keyboard!

Now, everybody loves a Slinky. If you’ve ever watched one of them strut down the stairs with groovy music in the background... congrats! You’re definitely a YouTube fan. People of all ages loved it when it came out — which is crazy because — it was never meant to be a toy at all — it’s a spring!

It was originally designed to stabilize sensitive nautical devices on ships. Nothing fun about that at all! Until that amazing day when one of them fell off a table and danced its way into our hearts. After many experiments, the new and improved slinky was born. Give that team of scientists a medal.

The little pocket on your jeans wasn’t designed for loose change or keys. It was originally made to store your pocket watch. You don’t have a pocket watch? How is that possible? They were all the rage in the 1890s! But that’s not all that makes your old pair of jeans interesting.

Look around the pocket areas, you’ll see rivets sticking out. No, they’re not some cool fashion idea from the past. These rivets serve a very crucial role. They help protect the sensitive areas of the jeans that get the most wear and tear! Back in the day, most people wore jeans to do hard manual labor, so they needed to be tough. If those guys back then saw you paying $100 for a pair of ripped jeans, they’d probably pass out from shock!