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50 Times Things Got “Opened” And People Saw Interesting Things Inside (New Pics)
Curiosity is a powerful force that drives humans to explore the world around us. It's the reason why we ask questions and venture into the unknown. And sometimes, it leads us to break or open things just to see what's inside, too.
In this list, Bored Panda gathered some of the most surprising and intriguing cross-sections that we could find. From the inside of a bowling ball to the inner workings of a cactus, these pictures are sure to stir up your interest. We've even "cut up" a mechanical calculator to show its complex mechanisms!
So sit back, relax, and continue scrolling to enjoy this fascinating journey through the unexpected contents of everyday objects.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Picked Up An Old Clam Beside A Lake In South Australia And Found A Small Colony Of Plants Inside, Living Off Of The Nutrients
#2
My Dog Finally Finished Her Favorite Toy Tonight, Only To Find There Was A Smaller, Even More Squeaky Toy Inside
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.
#3
Cross-Section Of Several Different Cables
#4
My Firewood Had A Pine Cone Inside The Tree
RavenTheCat 1 year ago
The cone is likely older then the tree. And the tree grew around it more then likely due to the sap causing it to stick
#5
The Squeaker From Inside Her Dog Toy Has Declared Her The Winner
Arunika R. 1 year ago (edited)
It would be amazing to have a collection of these over the years
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.
#6
The Inside Of This Guitar Looks Like A Really Fancy Apartment
#7
The Wine I Ordered Online Came With A Tiny Set Of Dice Packaged Inside A Hollow Cork
#8
Had To Cut A Sunflower In Half Today At Work, Thought It Might Be Appreciated Here
#9
The Inside Of A Cactus
Arunika R. 1 year ago
If I'm not wrong, these vessels are used to store and transport water. It's called xylem and it's present in every plant, but it's stronger and larger in cacti because of dry climate.
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.
#10
A Cross-Section Of A Professional Painter's Palette (6 Months Deep)
bread lord 1 year ago
this is super interesting (although as an artist, I am shook as to how the painter didn't clean it out once)
Honeybee 1 year ago
The paint turns into plastic, so it can’t go down the drain. You just leave it to dry instead
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Mabelbabel 1 year ago
This is very like fordite-otherwise known as Detroit Agate. Its automobile paint found in old auto factories. The layers of paint dry rock solid over the years, and people use it to make jewellery from. It can be cut and polished just like quartz, and has lovely swirling multi coloured stripes.
Nan Romero 1 year ago
yeah a paper bowl. my favorite is Dixie they are lined with a bit of plastic or whatever to keep the moisture from making a mess.
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D. Pitbull 1 year ago
??? Wait. oh. what.. you... people don't... clean... their palettes regularly (obviously I am not a pro... I know next to nothing... other than paint exists)
Upstaged75 1 year ago (edited)
My mom's a professional artist and I've never seen one of her palettes get this thick. Although it looks like this person was using a paper bowl, so they possibly planned to just throw it away and didn't bother cleaning it.
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Schtroumphette Zezekof 1 year ago
More of a deep bowl than a palette, makes me think this was made on purpose. Not that impressive, imo.
MontanaMariner 1 year ago
In Missoula, MT there's a steel wall that they call the graffiti wall that gets a few inches worth of paint built up throughout the year, and every winter it gets super cold and the paint comes off in sheets. There's a wall cleaning weekend every spring to scrape it clean and many local artists use the paint chunks. Someone made a skateboard.
Illustrious G 1 year ago
If you’ve never heard of “fordite”, you should check it out. It’s layers of paint from painting cars and they polish it and make jewelry out of it. It’s a similar look to this, where you can see all the layers of color.
Jay Weigel 1 year ago
That looks kind of like fordite, aka Detroit agate, which is what comes off the walls of places where cars are spray-painted.
Caroline Driver 1 year ago
Heh, I had a teacher at primary school show us a chunk like this, but not in a bowl, it had come out of a paint mixing canister, and asked us what we thought it was. I don't think anyone guessed. This was back in the 70s
ValdaDeDieu 1 year ago
Art never fails us. Art is all around us. Art never dies, or lies. Art is infinite, eternal and in our hearts forever.
Patricia Stilwell 1 year ago
Must be acrylic paint. Oils wouldn't do this. My palette is wooden and it gets cleaned when the work in progress is done.
April Morris 1 year ago
I would love to see this cut into slices and made into another piece of art. 💚
Momten Jillian 1 year ago
Just like a paintbooth you can carve and polish the bits into some cool jewelry
#11
Inside Of A Mechanical Calculator
Arunika R. 1 year ago
It's such a wonder humans could think about creating beauties like this and actually make it function
#12
The Tigers On These Socks Look Like House Cats When Turned Inside Out
#13
The Inside Of A Pine Cone
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.
#14
Cross-Section Of Our Painter’s 1-Year-Old Stir Stick
#15
The Inside Of An HDMI Cable
#16
My Sister Found This Tiny Egg Inside Her Hard-Boiled Egg
Awesome At Being Autistic 1 year ago
I usually like hard boiled eggs, but for this one I'll make an eggception.
#17
Bit Into A Wonderful Surprise Today And Learned About The Delicious Lucy Glo Apple. The Best Apple I Have Ever Had
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.
#18
The Inside Of My Red Onion Looks Like A Lotus Flower
NickTheDuck 1 year ago
Black lotus 0 Mono artifact adds three mana of one color of your choice to your mana pool, then is discarded. tapping this artifact can be played as an interrupt.
#19
This Is A Tree Burning From The Inside In Oregon, USA. Don’t Let The Rain Fool You
#20
The Inside Of My Inflatable Air Mattress
#21
Elephant's Foot
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.
#22
I Cut Into A Cantaloupe And The Inside Was Square
#23
This Cedar Wood That I Was Cutting Had Purple Inside
#24
Cross-Section Of A Banana Tree Trunk
#25
Cut In Half Cables Used In The Golden Gate Bridge
#26
There Was A Billiard Ball Inside Of My Bocce Ball
#27
Inside Of A CT Scanner Undergoing Maintenance
#28
Inside Of This Tomato Looks Like A Perfect Strawberry
#29
Opened Up A Lighter And There Was Just Another Lighter Inside
#30
Steel Core Inside A "Rubber" Bullet
#31
Cross-Section Of A Poppy Flower Before Blooming
#32
Cross-Section Of A Whale Rib
#33
There Was A Bag Of Tiny Dice Inside My Bar Of Soap
#34
One Of Our Chickens Just Laid A Jumbo Egg With Another Egg Inside
#35
Manual Focus Camera Lens
#36
The Stacked Layers Of Anodes And Cathodes Inside Of A Duracell Battery
#37
A Bowling Ball With Its Inside Exposed. I Found In The Woods
#38
Repurposed. Kid's Halloween Snap-On Bracelet Cut Opened, Is Actually A Tape Measure
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
This type were banned years ago because they're so dangerous. That metal tape measure can slash right through a child's delicate wrist with catastrophic results.
#39
The Insides Of A Movie Theater Screen
#40
The Inside Of A Fire Alarm Is Just A Simple Switch
Giles McArdell 1 year ago
I think the point here is to be consistent - older alarm switches would have pulled a heavier or more complex mechanism, the alarm switch has to remain easily identifiable however so while the technology got simpler the switch itself needs to stay the same.
#41
Pulled A Paper Wasp Nest From The Corner Of My Shed And It Left A Perfect Cross-Section
#42
Inside Of A Hose Looks Like A Water Balloon
#43
The Die From The Inside Of A Magic 8-Ball
#44
What's Inside The Breast Implant?
#45
The Inside Of A Bomb
#46
The Other Side Of A Fast Food Soda Fountain
#47
The Inside Of This Golf Ball Looks Like A Boiled Egg
#48
Accidentally Cut Open A Cheap Kid's Baseball With My Lawn Mower
#49
The Inside Of An IKEA Desk Top
Arunika R. 1 year ago
Fun fact: this structure allows almost the same strength if the desk was fully filled and uses a lot less material! It's used in most cardboards.
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What do you think ?
Arunika R. 1 year ago
These were all very interesting. We need more content like these on bored panda.
Andy Frobig 1 year ago
15 minutes ago there were 127 of these, now there's 50. I don't like that
dab 1 year ago
you can just click on the '127' button at the end of the shortened list, Bored P. does that a lot... can't figure out why sometimes when they cut a list from 53 to 50. AND they never cut the AITA wedding stories!!!
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Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Sorry you feel this way... I loved most of the entries.
Load More Replies... Arunika R. 1 year ago
These were all very interesting. We need more content like these on bored panda.
Andy Frobig 1 year ago
15 minutes ago there were 127 of these, now there's 50. I don't like that
dab 1 year ago
you can just click on the '127' button at the end of the shortened list, Bored P. does that a lot... can't figure out why sometimes when they cut a list from 53 to 50. AND they never cut the AITA wedding stories!!!
Load More Replies... Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Sorry you feel this way... I loved most of the entries.
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