We’ve never lived in a time such as this, where information is always at our fingertips. That’s why it’s called the Information Age. We can Google what the weather is outside and what song is currently playing, and we can even ask AI to make us a meal plan for the week. But there’s one niche that Google hasn’t conquered yet – identifying mysterious and weird objects .
That’s the job for the What Is This Thing? subreddit. We’ve covered the community many, many times here on Bored Panda throughout the years. And now has come the time for the best of the best, the cream of the crop – the very top “What Is This Thing?” posts of all time. So, we present to you the ultimate compilation of people identifying strange, unknown objects!
chashaoballs Report
Answer: USB charging condom. This way you can plug your phone into a random USB port and be sure that no data is exchanged. Only the power pins are passed through to the phone. Also called a sync stop.
reddit.com Report
Answer: It’s a testing chip. It goes through the metal detectors to ensure they’re working. There’s a problem here though. You send X number of testers you get X number back. If you get X-1 or some other number you stop the line until you find your chip. The entire purpose of the test is to make sure that stuff like this–which is supposed to simulate a foreign object–does not get through. There’s usually paperwork to document this. Write to the outfit and tell them what you found and rest assured there will be a s**tstorm on the other end.
scary2020 Report
Answer: They are reflecting the headlights of cars to the fields, so that deer avoids crossing the road. So it’s for safety of cars and animals.
Z1337M Report
Answer: You my friend, have just dissected dog poop. Someone’s dog has eaten paper towels in abundance. They can’t digest it and it comes out like this
Godbleththismeth Report
Answer: these are to help bats orientate themselves, until the trees are larger. Did they recently cut down trees along this road? Bats need to hear reflection of their sound to know where they are going. These things will replace the leaves in that.
gng3quionbve4 Report
Answer: DON’T GO HIKING IN BOSNIA IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE ARE YOU GOING. it is full of unmarked mine fields.
FreezeHuddle Report
Answer: this person is probably a car thief scanning for keyless car keys. . never leave them near windows and doors.
SandipJB Report
Answer: Fabulous antique early Victorian chatelaine aide memoir from mid 1800s. Made of sheets of bone, it would have hung on a lady’s chatalaine chain or been kept securely in her pocket and she would have used it to make note and appointments for the week to come. It has 6 pages for the days Monday to Saturday, of course a lady would never have made appointments on a Sunday
mickbruh Report
Answer: It’s to tell you that the basement light is on.
pippiethehippie Report
Answer: Stingray teeth.
OpenMagazine8906 Report
Answer: that’s two worms making more worms.
reddit.com Report
Answer: voice recorder, doesn’t transmit using wireless though so whoever placed this thing, will be back. If this was in your home, chances are there are cameras as well.
M-I-G-Y Report
Answer: Slide rule, logarithmic calculating device. These put humans on the moon.
anewerab Report
Answer: It’s a snuffer. A visitor to your house would use it to put out their torch.
pepperjobe21 Report
Answer : that’s a broken megalodon tooth.
rinpiels Report
Answer: AV1 is a personal avatar for children suffering from long-term illness, helping them to continue their education and maintain the normality of daily life despite no longer being able to access mainstream education. Through an app, the user can remotely log into the class from their home or hospital. Looking through the robots eyes, the child can watch the lesson, through the robot’s ears they can hear greetings from their friends and they can speak through the robot to interact with the rest of the class.
Potetbror Report
Answer: Hes praying, thats a counter. The prayer involves repeating a phrase a certain number of times. Traditionally you kept track on your fingers or with a string of beads. This device does the same job.
DannyMThompson Report
Answer: That, my friend, is the daddy of all deer stands.
Ok_Olive_6733 Report
Answer: It obscures the car while being test driven, so the yet-to-be-released models are not photographed and published. The random “wave” patterns effectively hide the body contours and lines.
NotoriousJB Report
Answer: orchidometer. Used for sizing testicles.
harpejjist Report
Answer: No Bush/Quail. 1992 election sticker.
alongyourfuselage Report
Answer: a practice gravestone scrap. Someone who carved gravestones would practice engraving lettering and drawings on this broken piece of stone.
AppleTangoMike Report
Answer: So water doesn’t stay on the bottom if you put the mug in the dishwasher and stops wet mugs suctioning themselves to coasters. Pretty clever design actually.
HR_92 Report
Answer: Definitely a man hole. Do not open it. DEFINITELY DO NOT GO IN IT! Manholes are notoriously deadly because they contain low oxygen percentages and high concentrations of poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane. First responders usually find two dead people in manholes - the first one that went in and succumbed and their friend who watched them pass out and rushes in to help.
Darkstalkker Report
Answer : It’s a pressure relief hole. If you dropped it, instead of exploding, the hole would pop out.
Daniel_Min Report
Answer: It looks like a plantation/planters chair. You’d put your sore swollen legs up on the arms after sitting on a horse all day, like a pregnant woman with her legs up in the same fashion. This is why the back is so sloped as well. If you sit up straight it wouldn’t be comfortable to put your legs up like that, but in a reclined position it’s good for blood flow and air flow.
Chwk540 Report
Answer: Its money from the Philippines when it was occupied by Japan in 1941.
zangoku Report
Answer: It’s the top (closure part) of a purse or small handbag.
s1l4z_behr Report
Answer: An apprentice final piece before becoming a journey man engraver.
Haylez116 Report
Answer: If it’s legit, that’s a really old Gibson, from between 1903 and 1933. It’s going to be worth more than you think, so be really careful with it. Seriously.
Reverend_Mikey Report
Answer: phone table with storage space for the phone book.
csze28 Report
Answer: Opium pipe.
wetbutter Report
Answer: Spiders infected with fungus look like this.
reddit.com Report
Answer: Knife rests.
archofimagine Report
Answer: I live near Mt. Rainier and this happens too, only at dawn. The mountain casts its shadow on the underside of the clouds. This is just as impressive as that.
Jazzyfart Report
Answer: Yup, that’s a fossil. Tree trunk impression.
livefast_dieawesome Report
Answer: The term for it is frost flower and has to do with moisture freezing as it escapes plant tissue.
ConclusionWorking Report
dr_rentschler Report
Answer: It’s a Georgian/early Victorian mourning ring. The initials belong to the lost loved one. They were typically made from gold (18k+) and enameled in black. Yours looks like it was made around 1820s-40s.
gamer0981 Report
Answer: This is mostly likely thousands of years old - a Pre-Columbian artifact. You should take it to a university or museum for analysis. DO NOT polish it or clean it.
ItsaMeRobert Report
Answer: a portable men’s urinal for bedbound patients. It is used to pee when you cannot get out of bed.
home_cheese Report
Answer: they’re childrens’ training scissors. Like for pre-schoolers. The extra holes are so a grown-up can co-scissor and help the kid.
raybobobob Report
Answer: for leaving change for postal worker to add postage. USPS delivery people are required to have stamps and you don’t even need to catch them to buy some. If you have a piece of mail without postage you can put it in your mailbox with cash and the carrier will bring back change (if needed) the next day.
theokcorral Report
Answer: It’s a traffic light viewer. Traffic lights back in the day were mounted on the same side you stopped on which sometimes made it difficult to see the light if you were first in line, this helped reflect the light from above so you could tell when the light changed.
harrekrsna Report
Answer: Hag moth caterpillar with fuzzy “false arms” on its back to make it look like a dead leaf. (We’re looking at the belly)
pbjburger Report
Answer: Fire beaters. Used to extinguish small fires.
SumYungHoe98 Report
Answer: a boot button hook. Used to hook all those tiny buttons on ladies boots
erik_reddit Report
Answer: Sugarcube holder. For tea parties with scones. Or coffee and cake.
reddit.com Report
Answer: It’s a melted reusable ice cube.
A1DANN Report
Answer: You can open the gate by unlocking only one padlock. The way it’s designed means that multiple people can use the gate, and if one person loses their keys, only their padlock needs replaced. As opposed to one padlock with many keys, you’d need to give tons of people the new key.
FactorialANOVA Report
Answer: It’s Stafir Móti Aðsókn an Icelandic magical sigil/stave to protect against ghosts and evil spirits
LAMATL Report
Answer: Medieval pilgrim’s badge.
VivaZane Report
Answer: These were how old reflectors were made, like for railroads
TrinklingRain Report
Answer: It’s called a butlers sink, or cleaners sink. It’s used for cleaning, filling buckets, emptying out waste so housekeeping can wash down surfaces without wandering through the house.
Cisco800Series Report
Answer: Corner dust guards. They make it easier to sweep dust out of the corners.
LocalSalesRep Report
Answer: It is a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder. You place a strip of card into one set of grooves in the piece that curves behind the sphere, point the opposite side of the sphere towards the equator, and the sphere will focus the sunlight to burn a track on the card. The card has hours marked, and more the card is burnt, the brighter the sunlight was.
Jolly-Challenge-3924 Report
Answer: Old windows were made of glass spun out into flatness. That’s the center of the spin. New windows are made of glass floated on a pool of molten tin, which makes very flat panes without any annoying bullseyes. EDIT: this is also the source of the myth that glass is a liquid and flows over time. See the center pane of your picture? Someone took the time to get a “good” pane for the center of the window, without any bullseye - put your best pane in that spot, obviously. But the glass is still of uneven thickness, getting thicker closer to the bullseye. So people look at panes like that, with thicker glass in one part, and decide that “hey, the glass must have started off perfectly flat and flowed over time”. But no. The glass flowed when it was molten (1500 degrees C!) and does not flow at room temperature.
csaduck Report
Answer: They’re called “belly bars” in a lot of places. They’re designed for flower boxes. Edit: forgot to mention that the primary purpose is security. The rounded part is for flower boxes.
lw1999 Report
Answer: it’s a residue of a rocket launch. It’s called Twilight effect. It was done right at sunset so the sun lit the vapor/exhaust trail from underneath.
TBTurtles Report
OliRobbo Report
sal25 Report
Answer: It’s a frequency scanner. Often used by car thieves. These can read the codes from that distance and enable thieves to get into your vehicle, disable the security features in the process, and drive away with your car.
thedudeabides227 Report
Answer: Termite poop.
wowiie Report
BundleOfSticks556 Report
Answer: Salt cellar aka salt pig
merlee13 Report
LethalDeadlyCuteSnek Report
Answer: Toy plates for a dollhouse.
FFiresticks Report
Answer: Former bank employee here. It’s definitely a safety signal. We switched ours quarterly and it is to let other employees know that it is all clear to open.
bangsoul Report
Answer: It is a fish crib. It is a device to give baby fish a place to hide from the big boys. They also make for some good fishing as the lunckers will hang around hoping for a few little ones to come out
LardLad00 Report
Answer: Fossil snail casting
emersona3 Report
Answer: Settling pond for erosion control and improving the downstream water for happier fish
yourlocalpizzajoint Report
Answer: Laser cut “perpetual” calendar.
anxietyattacks77 Report
Answer: It is a worry doll. You tell your worries to it, and put it under your pillow at night. It’s supposed to take away your worries while you’re sleeping.
Zbunny666 Report
Answer: It is for wine. Ice goes in the little side container to keep it cold.
reddit.com Report
Answer: Fire extinguisher.
reddit.com Report
Answer: Pit mine, the spiral you see is the actual road trucks drive on to transport the materials mined from the bottom to the top.
Calrner Report
Answer: It’s dry sand floating on the water tension, been picked up by the raising tide. Only happens when it’s hot enough to dry the sand and absolutely flat calm.
carissa0816 Report
Answer: They have these in violins. They call them the mouse. It’s just years and years of fluff and detritus. If they get repaired the repairer will put ‘the mouse’ back into the violin for good luck. It could be something like that.
ItIsNotBecause Report
Answer: It’s a type of handicap toilet, more common in Europe than the US. It’s supposed to have an open-front seat, too. That allows a person to slide straight onto and off of the seat (such as from a wheelchair), without their genitals ever touching the seat or the bowl. This is more comfortable and decreases spread of disease.
foundboots Report
Answer: Before construction, they are required to look for sites of archaeological interest. This is the pattern that they use to search for those. They trench a line and the dots on each side of the trench are the dirt which has been removed
SubArcticTundra Report
Answer: they’re good luck/prayer charms that are tossed in the water on purpose.
PastorJames2020 Report
Answer: They are times. For example, 4 is 2 blue, blue is 2. So 4 is 2x2. 8 has three blue 2x2x2. 96 has 4 blue 2x2x2x2 (32) x red which is 3. 32x3 is 96
MacerSpaceflight Report
the_silly_fish Report
iChickk Report
Fred330 Report
Answer: It’s a part of a ring warn by somone important on one of the shipping companies in the 18th century
whatisthisbluething Report
Answer: Vintage Christofle Orfevre a Paris Silver Plated Medicine/Invalid Feeder Spoon.
kalvinoz Report
Answer: It’s got holes in it, that’s a drywell. That thing fills up when it rains so the yard doesn’t flood.
Key_Guidance9806 Report
Answer: It is an Ikebana Vase. It is for Japanese style flower arrangements. The flowers go in the tubes and the rest is also filled with water, usually smooth stones, or maybe a small turtle or frog sculpture.
xsladil Report
Answer: It’s floating duck house or similar structure for local waterfowl. They give ducks a place to sleep safe from predators or to escape water predators (usually snapping turtles and such).
mtdunca Report
Answer: Manufacturers are providing a lot more pieces that are accessible to children with limited mobility. While this may seem less interesting at first glance, imagine the benefits to children who’ve never been able to climb up to a slide or fire pole.
Enginerdad Report
Answer: Telephone nook/niche.
tozierrr Report
Answer: A mini refillable hot/cold pack for headaches or injuries.
britlynj Report
Answer: Baoding balls. They’re for stress and concentration. You’re supposed to put them both in the palm of your hand and rotate them around each other in a circle.
dezlovesyou Report
Answer: A boot puller, otherwise known as a boot jack. Heel in the u shaped groove, other foot on the back of that to stabilise it all, swingy bit on the top of the foot, hold the hand grips and lever the boot off the heel by lifting your booted leg up and out.
flyingwithed Report
Answer: It’s to grow mushrooms. Called a fruiting house. It looks like there is even substrate there that you use in growing mushrooms.
allgoldslugs Report
Answer: It’s where a scale used to be.
GBinAZ Report
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