The world is far too complex for us to have all the answers. On any given day, people are coming up with new projects and ideas that prove change is the only stable thing in life. Since we can’t keep up with their sometimes weird, sometimes brilliant inventions, we’re bound to believe that all of these novel items have a purpose.
But have you ever stumbled across something so random and mysterious that you just had to ask, "What Is This Thing?" Well, if you have, chances are you reached out to the online group on Reddit with the same name. "We may not know the 'why' but we can help with the 'what'," the moderators write in the description, and boy, do they deliver!
More than 2.1 million amateur detectives consistently scroll through the photographs and solve one case after another by deciphering the perplexities people upload online. We gathered some of the most bizarre objects people posted on the group, along with the wisdom from the subreddit about what they are. Continue scrolling, upvote the most interesting ones, and tell us what you think about them in the comments! And if you're in the mood for even more strange objects and the explanations behind them, check out our previous posts about them here, here, and here.
#42 Found This Behind A Commercial Freezer While Doing Renovations. Plastic Casing, Plastic Looking Balls, Metal Shroud, About 1.5 Inches In Length. Wall Anchor? Cyanide Capsule?

Answer: this is a scent/pheromone capsule for a moth glue trap
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134points
#43 Large Chunk Of (Metal?) Weighs Quite A Bit In Your Hand And Hasn't Changed In Color In Decades

Answer: The circled m logo is the logo of the réunion des musées nationaux, the French public museums. Probably a copy of a cuneiform tablet available as a souvenir at the Louvre, among other museums.
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132points
#44 Large Plastic Hood With Gloves Attached. Found In Chicago Residential Alleyway

Answer: glove box. Laboratory glove box. Used to isolate samples. I'm sure you may have seen them once or twice in movies with science labs etc.
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130points
#45 Bronze And Lead Object, With Some Kind Of Scale In It, No Moving Parts, Found While Digging

Answer: Appears to be a German artillery fuse
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123points
#46 Found Tiny Vial Of Thick Liquid With A Bead Inside. There Were Also 4 Rubber Things For Your Fingers And It Was All In A Sealed Black Foil Packet. Any Idea What It Is?

Answer: It’s a lotion that comes with temporary tattoo kits. The little rubber finger covers are for applications
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122points
#47 My Neighbor Just Installed This Outside Of Their Window. I Assume It Measures Something But I Have Never Seen Such A Pole

Answer: It’s an antenna
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119points
#48 Witt? A Small Wooden Box With A Sort Of Dial On The Front Which Can Turn But Cannot Turn Anymore At Certain Points. There Is One More In Another Pew

Answer: The dial is a potentiometer which suggests maybe those are headphone sockets with a volume control
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105points
#49 Found This Plastic Device Buried In The Garage. About 13 Inches Long, And When You Pull Back The Trigger Where Your Hand Goes It Lifts The Little Knob On The End Upwards. The Bottom Side Of The Knob Has Velcro On It

Answer: Looks like those TSA wands that test for explosives. They put a little cloth piece in there, rub it all over your s**t and then put the little cloth pad in a detector.
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99points
#50 What Are These Lights That Appear To Be Behind The Mirror In The Hotel I’m Staying At?

Answer: It’s likely supposed to be an “infinity mirror” you lay a one way mirror over a standard one and put the LED’s between the layer giving it a tunnel appearance. The missing side could be a bad strip of LED’s
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92points



