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Man Asks What Hole In Milk Cartons Are For And The Internet Delivered

Have you ever looked at something mundane and wondered "Why is that the way it is?"

I mean, there's a reason for everything and sometimes, those reasons can be kind of cool.

One of the great things about the internet age is that you can answer those random questions.

Especially Reddit, where the community is so vast that you're pretty much guaranteed to find someone with the correct answer.

If you find the right subreddit, your answer can sometimes be found in a matter of minutes.

Yes, there are thousands of subreddits, so that can seem daunting, but many common curiosities have subreddits all their own.

Which is why Redditor Daniel_Min turned to r/whatisthisthing for his question.

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The subreddit is one of those with a perfectly clear purpose, and for Reddit newbies that's definitely handy.

You shouldn't have to learn the language of an entire community to ask a single question.

R/whatisthisthing is a pretty cool place to hang out if you're just a naturally curious person.

Reddit | Finnick420

Scrolling through the topics, you can find vintage kitchen gadgets, weird creatures, or even the answer to a question you hadn't thought to ask.

(The image above is of what turned out to be artillery used to create controlled avalanches.)

It can also be pretty funny.

Reddit | Merciman

Like when a guy found this in his father's bedroom and really hoped it wasn't a sex thing.

It's not. It actually goes over boots to provide traction on ice and snow.

Other times, the answer can upend an entire life.

Reddit | M-I-G-Y

When a cleaner found this under a bed, a woman asked for help identifying it and was shocked to learn that it was a motion-sensing audio recorder.

The revelation resulted in doing some more sleuthing.

She discovered pamphlets about video surveillance in her partner's desk and got the hell out of the house, staying with a friend while taking the whole matter to the police.

So of course it was the right place for Daniel_Min's question.

Reddit | Daniel_Min

"What is this big hole that is usually found on milk cartons?" he asked, with an accompanying pic for context.

Before you quibble, no, it's not technically a "hole".

If it was, fridges everywhere would be a whole lot messier.

So let's call it an indent for the sake of pedantry.

The first answer seemed plausible enough that Daniel_Min announced that it was solved.

Reddit

There are a lot of things where an indent in plastic does act as pressure release. By popping outward, the container suddenly has more space for the pressure to spread out.

Of course, if you've ever dropped a jug of milk or juice, then you've probably had to clean up a big mess.

If the indent was meant to prevent explosions, it does a pretty poor job.

Which is why subreddits like this one are the only place where you should read all the comments.

The indent is most likely there for the sanity of manufacturers.

Reddit

Molds for plastic containers can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, so for small differences in volume, a "volume adjuster insert" is added to the inside of the mold.

This is particularly handy in North America, where the volume differences across borders are tiny.

Wikipedia

Why would you pay to create a 1 gallon mold for the US market and a whole second 4 liter mold for Canada? It's only an 0.057 of a gallon difference.

So you make a 4 liter mold and use a volume adjuster insert to change it to 1 gallon.

Why not just put 1 gallon of milk in the 4 liter jug? Because customers don't like seeing empty space. They think they're getting ripped off, even though the volume of milk is exact.

And sometimes, the indent helps prevent explosions as a nice side effect.

Cool, right?

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