People Share Their Funniest 'Oh, That's How That Works' Stories

"by the ears."

When my brother and I were really little we had an old family friend who would pick us up "by the ears." He would grab each ear but then would also have us grab onto his forearms. It took me until I was much older to realize that he wasn't actually picking us up by our ears, but instead used his forearms to lift us up. Still a great trick to use with little kids!

nirvanavrin

Oils...

I bought a car and was worried for months that my oil level never lowered, after 6 months I called my friend who sold me the car to ask about this, he explained that's that how it supposed to work, then when I realized every single car I owned and my dad owned my whole life leaked oil. omninephilim1

Lights Off.

For a while, my Christmas lights would randomly turn off. I couldn't figure out what it was. Was it the wireless switch? Was it some fault in the electricity? It would seemingly be random, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Then one day I was coming home from work and my neighbors got home at the same time. As they were locking their car doors, my lights turned off. I realized, "Ah, that's how that works." TheCaptainCog

REPEL! 

I bought some of those expensive windshield wipers that repel water and I they sucked. It would smear the rain and the damn blade kept sliding off. I'd have to get off to fix put it back on. This went on for a 4-5 months. One day I went to slide the blade back on that I realized it wasn't the blade, but the blade cover that I kept putting back. becelav

"How long have you had this thing?"

Got a laptop for a job managing a cafe. Worked fine but it was inconvenient to use behind the counter and in the kitchen. After watching me struggle to use it standing up, the owner took it from me, rotated the screen and flipped it closed. It was a combo laptop/tablet and I had no idea. "How long have you had this thing?" Two months. Positivistdino

Kitchen Tools...

I have an air fryer. It's a pretty handy kitchen tool. The food goes in a basket which is attached to what's basically a metal bowl. So the grease and crumbs and whatever fall out of the basket and into the bowl.

My only real complaint was it was hard to get the food out without a mess. You try and dump the basket onto a plate and the oil in the bowl still kind of runs out in a puddle. You can keep it away from the food if you're paying attention and like wipe it up but it's an annoyance.

Then one day I mentioned it to my wife while making some fries. She just looked at me and said "Why don't you take them apart?" and took the handle and pressed the button to separate the basket and bowl, dumped the fries out mess free, and reconnects it back to the bowl.

Now you might be thinking I'm an idiot for not knowing about that button. It's actually WORSE. I knew that button was there, I just used it to separate the pieces for cleaning and it somehow never occurred to me to take them apart during use despite the fact it's just one simple button that can be used with one hand. sharrrper

29 is Hard! 

I just realized, this past spring at a party, that I've been using corkscrews on wine bottles all wrong. Turns out it is NOT correct form to screw it in by turning the bottle, then depressing the handles.

I was publicly mocked.

I deserved it. (I'm 29.) strixx-variaa

The Jiggilies.... 

My "aha" moment was learning why the little metal bits on the end of tape measures are always loose and jiggly. It's so that it can slide to compensate for the thickness of the metal stop depending which side of the edge you measure on. Genius bit of engineering that most people don't even realize is helping them out all the time. SeeRight_Mills

Know the Limit.

Never knew why some yellow lights seemed to change so fast and others felt like they took forever. I thought it was just a flat amount of time for everywhere. Then Reddit told me that yellow lights stayed yellow for the speed limit divided by ten, in seconds. So 25 mph speed limit means the light will stay yellow for 2.5 seconds, and 45 mph means it will stay yellow for 4.5 seconds. It all makes sense now. BamboozledBigTIme

I discovered.....

I discovered, by accident, that when I push the car door "unlock" button 3 times, it makes all the windows go down.

It's a very handy feature in warm weather. Back2Bach