The process of taking something apart to understand how it works is called reverse engineering, and there are many reasons why someone (or a company) might do it.

You can reverse engineer consumer products, software, mechanical parts, pieces of technology, or even architectural structures.

When companies employ this practice, engineers usually do it without the original blueprints. While there are many ways to reverse engineer a product, a popular method is to take apart a smaller part of a product and analyze it until you get a thorough understanding of it.

You can deconstruct (and reconstruct) things in many different areas. Jazz musicians can take apart a song and put the ideas together in a new improvisation of the original. Writers might look at a well-known story and retell it in a new, fresh way.

The musical West Side Story, for example, was based on the storyline from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and James Joyce’s Ulysses is a modern-day retelling of The Odyssey by Homer.

In business, updating older products for current use is also one of the main reasons why people turn to reverse engineering. It could include rebuilding:

• An old or outdated product;
• An expensive product using cheaper or more readily available materials;
• A product that uses mechanical parts that no longer exist;
• Another company's product to learn about it;
• Reverse engineering helps engineers understand the product's function, which they can use to create an effective updated version that still meets user requirements.

Reverse engineering can also help repair products that are already on the market. This process can be especially helpful if nobody is sure what's causing the issue. Engineers may also take these products apart to see if there are any ways to fix them or improve functionality with new technology or smarter design. For example, a company may learn that newly available technology can help improve glitching issues within a software application. Through the reverse engineering process, they may also learn that there's a more efficient way to create the product.

As writer Eric Braun pointed out, deconstruction also plays a part in teaching something to someone else. In order to pass down the knowledge, you need to understand its components and how they fit together. This comes from focused learning on each aspect of the topic. If a student does not understand something and has a question, the teacher will not be able to convey the topic if they cannot answer it.

As you can see, you can learn a great deal by taking things apart. However, if you decide to do it, don't forget to take pics and share them with the rest of us!

For more similar "lessons", fire up Bored Panda's earlier publications 30 Photos Of Objects Cut In Half That Reveal The Unseen Side Of Things and 30 Times People Broke Or Opened Things And Were Surprised By What They Found Inside.