- Quarters.
- Not one person on this Earth does that.
♪ (rock intro) ♪
- (FBE) Have you ever looked at an everyday object and wondered
what is the purpose of that? - Actually, yes.
- Yeah, sure. Everybody has, I think. - Yes. I feel like I've actually
had that exact thought here. - (FBE) Well, today, you won't have
to wonder anymore, because we're gonna be showing you 10 things
that you probably see every day but maybe didn't know the purpose of.
- Love it. - Oh, this is fun.
- (FBE) Are you ready to learn some things?
- I know. - Let's do it. I like this.
- I am ready. - (FBE) First one up.
Have you ever wondered what the tiny pocket in front
of the jeans is for? - As I understand, it used
to be for cellphones? But cellphones are way bigger
than this now. - I think it's an extra pocket
for, like... I really don't know. Glasses?
- It's to keep your tiny stuff safe.
- Coins? - If you tuck a $100 bill in here
or change, it doesn't fall out when you bend over.
- I mean, it's a pocket, right? So, you put your pocket watch
in the pocket that is made specifically for your watch.
- (FBE) You're correct. - Oh, yay! (claps)
- (FBE) Back during the 1800s, denim became a popular fabric
for many working men, so that tiny little pocket
was added to the pants for them to hold their pocket watches.
- Oh, of course. - Something very useful when they were
working down in the mines and the railroads, yup.
- Perfect. Makes perfect sense. - I see. I had heard that fact before.
Pocket watches aren't really a thing anymore.
We just have our phones, and we have regular wristwatches
that we wear. Not a useless pocket, though,
'cause it's now used for those things I mentioned earlier.
- I have to buy a pocket watch now. - (FBE) Next up, we have this.
- Coins. Quarters. - (FBE) So, I don't know
if you ever noticed, but have you seen that all quarters
have these little edges all around them?
- Yes. - (FBE) Do you have any idea
why they're there? - Actually, for them not to roll.
- Maybe so you could feel it and tell the difference between the coins.
- To scratch something, but that sounds a little too cheesy.
- So you can run your pencil along it and then make someone
go down their face and it's a fun trick?
That's why I use it. - To do something automated
like a parking meter. They can tell if it's the real deal
or it's a fake. Some people try to use those things they give you free
to open a bathroom door where you spend quarters
and maybe it helps them recognize that this is real money
and that is a bathroom token. Am I right?
- (FBE) You are. - Ahhh! (laughs) I love it!
See, I've been around the block. I'm 70. I've learned a couple things
along the way. - (FBE) Back in the early days
of America when the quarter was first released, many people
would shave off the sides to save extra metal to remelt it
to make more coins. To help banks and others see
if a quarter was tampered with, the US Mint added the ridges
to the side. - Huh.
Those tricky, tricky, tricky people. Is this my tip?
Do I get to keep-- I'll put it in my little pocket!
(laughs) - If you catch anyone shaving off
quarter bits, that's the struggle.
- A tennis shoe! A good old-fashioned tennis shoe.
- (FBE) So, Converse sneakers are an American classic shoe,
but do you know why there's two holes on the side panels
of a lot of their sneakers? - To let all the stinky air
from your feet out. - Other shoe laces.
- Letting your foot breathe while it's in your shoe.
- You can kind of put a string to it to the other shoe
so then they could stay together. - Probably to vent
sweaty tennis shoes. - Converse was first an athletic shoe,
'cause it was used a lot, you know, playing basketball and stuff.
So, I would assume for that reason, for breathability of athlete's feet.
- This allows air to filter a little bit, so you're not so stinky.
- (FBE) Correct. - Correct!
- (FBE) Converse was originally created as basketball shoes,
where the holes on the side had two purposes.
The first was to help keep air circulating in the shoes.
- Yes. That... - (FBE) Does that make sense?
- ...needs to be true. - (FBE) And the second one is
so that they laced through to get a tighter grip on your foot.
- Ain't nobody using Converse nowadays to put a shoelace through here
and tightening it. Converse are already tight enough.
- Okay, ballpoint pen. - (FBE) Mm-hmm.
Probably very familiar with ballpoint pens,
but did you ever notice that the cap of these ballpoint pens
has a tiny little hole right on top? - Yes. This one-- yeah.
- (FBE) Do you know why it's there? - That's to blow like a whistle, right?
In case you need help. No? - It's not just letting
your pen breathe as well? - To help the airflow, I think.
- Do they get too hot and they need airflow?
- To... make sure it doesn't dry out? - These things do dry out,
so I figure that it could be to kind of give it some air.
- I think it's so that the pen can pull out easier,
'cause if there's no air in there, it like suctioned up and you probably
can't pull the pen away. - (FBE) All good guesses,
but incorrect. - Okay.
- (FBE) So, many people believe
that it's to help the pen not dry out, but it is actually
also a safety feature... - Really?
- (FBE) ...so that if a child was to swallow the cap,
they'd still be able to breathe. - Oh my goodness.
That's a horrid thought, isn't it? - Roughly 100 people die in the US
each year from choking on pen lids, but this number used to be higher
before more companies started implementing this whole.
- Hmm. Cool. I mean, it's sad but interesting.
- Totally makes sense now, 'cause, of course,
kids put everything in their mouth. - I'm never gonna use a pen again.
That's a dangerous weapon. - (FBE) Next up.
- Ooh, a bottle of wine. - Wine bottles, they've been around
for hundreds of years. But did you know that the bottle
is designed for a particular reason? Why do you think the wine bottle
is shaped the way it is, in particular that indentation
on the bottom? - Well, the indentation on the bottom
I think is for the sediment. - To get drunk!
Is it like an aeration kind of thing? Does it need...
I don't know. I'm gonna have to remember
all of these when I have people over, be like, "You know,
would you like some wine? Do you know why the inde"-- (chuckles)
- Only because I've seen people do it at my restaurant,
it's for pouring, that you could do it
with a good grip to hold on to when you pour it
at a restaurant at a table. Do this and do it that--
I don't like doing it that way, because it'll fall out
of my frickin' hands. - No. Doesn't help...
its base. I'm not sure. - I think it separates the sediment.
As it ages, all that stuff goes to the bottom.
It separates that so when you pour it,
it's not so likely to come out into your drink.
- (FBE) Good guess, but incorrect. - Oh. Okay.
I thought I was a connoisseur already. (chuckles)
- (FBE) Wine bottles have an indentation on the bottom
of the bottle, which helps it stand up straight.
But initially, its main purpose was to relieve some of the pressure
the bottle goes through when inserting the cork
to prevent it from bursting or breaking.
- Right, right, 'cause it's already--
you're creating a vacuum in there pretty much.
There's no displacement for the air. - (FBE) And then if you notice,
in champagne bottles it's even larger or even deeper...
- Yes. - (FBE) ...because there's more
pressure 'cause of the added carbonation.
- Right, 'cause when you pop that, boom.
I knew, 'cause I did it wrong once and it hit my eye.
- Yeah, I guess with soda, they kind of have that little bottom
at the bottom of the cans as well. Interesting.
- It's a shirt. - A lady's blouse. Okay.
- (FBE) So, when you buy clothes, it's often accompanied
with a small plastic bag with a couple of buttons
and a small piece of fabric, right? - Yes.
- (FBE) Do you know why the piece of fabric is there?
- Isn't it if you rip it, like a chunk of it gets off
or something, you could bring this exact fabric to whatever store
or fabric store that you wanna go to? It's like, "I need this color
and/or this texture to fix the garment that I have at home."
- It's if something ever goes wrong, you can take this little mini piece,
and you can sew it together. - If it rips, you can always
just sew this right here. - Either backing up the button
or if you get a little hole. - In case you get a tear
in the material, then you can try and patch it back.
Or possibly if you ruin it, you can try and find
the same material elsewhere. - If you were to get a small hole
or something and you really cared enough about it, you could probably--
the old-fashioned way, you could darn it.
But people are not into that anymore. They're like buy it, use it,
throw it out. - (FBE) So close, but incorrect.
- Oh! (laughs) - (FBE) Many assume the fabric
is used to patch up any holes, but it's actually supposed to be used
to test detergent, so that you can see if anything will damage
the new clothes. - Ohhh. Ain't nobody doing that.
Not one person on this Earth does that.
- Great idea.
- An iPhone. - iPhone?
I only know about the Android life. - (FBE) Most people who have used
an iPhone are pretty familiar with their device, but have you ever
noticed there's a small dot next to the back camera lens?
- Yeah, that little dot. Does it overheat and that gives it
a little airflow? - Is that for light sensitivity?
- Does it have something to do with focus?
- It's to keep the picture steady and balanced.
- For flashing when you're in the dark,
so you can actually see the picture. - I thought it was a microphone.
- (FBE) You're correct. - Okay, yeah.
It just makes sense that the mic is right next to the camera.
- (FBE) The little dot next to the lens is a microphone
to allow for sound when using the back-facing camera.
- Ohhhh. - So, that's how they record
all of our conversations. - They are gajillionaires!
Give us a bigger microphone! Come on!
- Okay. Good ol' spiral notebook. - (FBE) You probably always
instinctually wrote between the side margins, right?
- Right. - (FBE) Well, do you know why
we have those margin lines? - I mean, doesn't it do
the exact measurement of an 8x10? - It helps you not to write sloppy.
- It helps you write. If you go past the holes,
then you write down and on the table. - I assumed it's to take little notes
that wouldn't mess up the rest of your--
you know, the structure of your-- I mean, that's what I used it for.
- I thought it was so that you could make notification.
"Okay, correct this." - To be honest, I kind of use it
to keep my-- whenever I write in here to keep it clean, because, you know,
especially when you think about it, on a computer,
it goes from a straight line to a line as well.
So, I feel like it's the same thing, just on paper.
- 'Cause we're used to following orders.
It keeps our writing nice and straight, and you know,
it makes us feel like we're following instructions.
- (FBE) That is incorrect. - Okay. What is it?
Sock it to me! - (FBE) Back in the day,
many writings which were saved would get the edges nibbled out by rats.
So, to help preserve the written text, margins were put in so if the paper
was eaten, only the edges were gone and not the writings.
- That's so obscure.
Could you imagine still having that problem?
Ah, man! The rats! You gotta keep the line going, guys!
The rats! Let me pray that no rats come by
and try to eat my notebook. - I'm already a wealth
of useless information, but this is good.
- A beanie. - (FBE) Beanies are a classic piece
of clothing, but do you know why beanies have pom-poms on the top?
- It's not just a fashion thing? This can't have a purpose.
Now you're just making stuff up. - I thought it was just
for fashion to be honest with you guys.
Is it like minor protection for the head?
- It blocks your head from getting snow on it.
- If something flies on, it'll be the one
to keep your head safe. - Well, for girls, they look cuter
if you have a pom-pom on your head. And if you bump your head,
you're gonna hit this before you hit your head.
- Maybe originally pom-pom beanies were used by people who explored
or who would go off the trails and if they were colored brightly
and they were lost somewhere, they could find them by their pom-pom.
- When it's a really heavy blizzard, you can see someone.
Try to think of either one type of way of like drifting off something,
like water or snow or, like I said,
a visual aid to see someone from far away.
- You know, a tam? It's kind of like a hat.
They're usually knit like this. It had something to do with
their colors of their family or something like that.
- (FBE) All good guesses but incorrect.
- But you're [bleep] wrong. (chuckles) - (FBE) Pom-poms can be traced back
to vikings who would use it on top of their heads
to hold the fabric together. But then it was continued
to be used by sailors who would wear them on top
of their hats to help them not bump their heads
on the ship equipment. - Yes, right, and hurt themselves.
Right. - I understand this though,
because I was a sailor on a ship and likely as not, you're walking up,
boom, you hit yourself and it's metal and it hurts.
- (FBE) Many then switched the pom-pom for a button at the top of their hat,
which looked like a bean and helped coin the term beanie.
- Hmm. I just learned! - I don't remember reading
about that in history at all. I skipped the pom-pom chapter.
- I never knew where that word came from.
Thank you. I'm gonna tell somebody as soon as I leave here.
- (FBE) Finally, do you have any idea why donuts have holes in the middle?
- (whispers) Oh my god. This looks so good.
(claps) First thing first is food and I wanna eat it. That why.
I feel like it's probably just easier to hold.
- For the "O" in donut. ♪ (rim shot) ♪
- When you're doing mass baking maybe it's easier somehow.
- Is it just to save dough? - They might have stuck 'em
in the fryer with a stick or something like that.
- So they can grab it instead of grabbing the sides
so they don't bite their fingers. They can have the hole to grab it.
- I always assumed so they would cook all the way through evenly,
so it wasn't just a doughy mess in the center.
- (FBE) You got this one right! - I would! It's about one
of my favorite foods. - (FBE) So, punching a hole
in the middle was a simple way to make these fried cakes cook evenly,
because when they would put it in the fryer, the edges would
cook faster and burn, but this inside would stay doughy.
- Okay. That makes sense. Cool. And I got a free donut.
- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. - That's interesting.
And they used to be really thin and wide,
and now they just all chunky and small.
It's so funny. - (FBE) So finally, what is one thing
you wanna know the purpose of that we didn't get to today?
- Rent. - A stuffed animal, 'cause I have
like a million of them at home. Why do we get them?
- Why aglets are on shoelaces. Is it just to close up the seams
of the fabric of the shoelace? We could probably do
a quick Google search, but it's fine. (laughs)
- This is fun. I'm learning something new,
and I'm thinking about things I've never thought before.
It sparks my imagination, my brain to think outside the box
and try to figure stuff out, which I love figuring stuff out.
- Thanks for watching the episode of The Tens.
Shoutout to Hector Martinez. - Subscribe and hit the bell,
so you never miss an episode. - What do you want to know
the purpose of? Let us know in the comments.
- Bye! - Hey, guys. Vartuhi here,
producer at FBE. Thank you so much for watching
this episode of The Tens. Make sure to subscribe to the channel,
so hit that checkmark, hit that Bell, so you're notified
when we have new uploads. Bye, guys!