Everything has a beginning and an end. However, as much as people like to think we know when it’s time, we don’t. At least not entirely. And to prove that, we collected a list of pictures that show ordinary objects just giving up and giving out. (This also builds nicely on our earlier gallery of worn-out things, taking the idea a step further.)
From a piano collapsing while being moved into storage to a shoe falling apart right before a wedding, these moments highlight that even familiar, everyday items can fail without us spotting the warning signs.
#1 The “F” Fell Off My Ford Fiesta Flame. Now I Drive A Ford Fiesta Lame
#2 Brand New Eyeshadow Palette Fell, And The Only Shade That Broke Was Called “Unlucky”
When something falls onto the floor, we usually expect it to break into pieces. But scientists say they have found a way to calculate how many pieces form and what sizes they are, whether it’s a broken mirror or a sugar cube—they seem to follow a universal rule.
As Karmela Padavic-Callaghan reports for New Scientist, researchers have long known that fragmentation follows a universal pattern. If you count how many fragments there are at each size and plot that as a graph, the distribution has the same shape no matter what object breaks.
Emmanuel Villermaux at Aix-Marseille University in France has now derived an equation that explains this shape, effectively creating a universal law for how objects break apart.
#3 I Dropped My Watch, And The Numbers Fell Off
#4 My Truck Is In The Shop, So I’ve Been Biking To Work. This Morning, My Bike Broke. When I Went To Take It Back, My Door Handle Fell Off
#5 A Large Branch Fell Onto My Wife’s Vehicle And Peeled Down The Door’s Outer Panel Without Damaging The Glass Window
Instead of focusing on the details of how cracks form in an object before it breaks, he took a more zoomed-out approach. Villermaux looked at all possible ways an object can shatter into fragments. Some of these outcomes are very specific, like a vase breaking into four equal pieces.
He then selected the most likely set—the one with the highest entropy—which represents breakages that are messy and irregular. He says this is similar to how many laws about large groups of particles were developed in the 19th century.
He also used a physical law that describes how the total density of fragments changes as the object breaks, which he and his colleagues had previously discovered.
#6 My Aunt Spilled The Wine, And The Glass Broke Exactly In Half
#7 Ivy Peeling Off A Building
#8 My House Just Fell On My Car
#9 My Debit Card Fell Out Of My Pocket, And The Chip Fell Off It
Together, these two ingredients allowed him to create a simple equation that predicts how many fragments of each size a breaking object will produce.
To test how well it worked, Villermaux compared it with many past experiments involving shattering glass bars, dry spaghetti, plates, ceramic tubes, and even plastic fragments in the ocean, as well as waves breaking in rough seas.
Across all these cases, the fragmentation patterns followed his new law, matching the same common graph shape that researchers had observed before.
#10 The Bottom Of My Cup Fell Off While Making A Hot Chocolate
#11 Can Opener Fell Apart While I Was Opening A Can Of Corn
#12 My Mother Woke Up And Found This In The Living Room
#13 The Front Fell Off My Local Home Depot. Apparently, The Faux Brick Facade Was Only Held On By Drywall Anchors For The Last 25 Or So Years
Villermaux conducted a series of experiments where he shattered a sugar cube by dropping an object onto it from different heights. “That was a summer project with my daughters. I did this a long time ago when my children were still young and then came back to the data, because they were illustrating my point well,” says Villermaux.
The equation doesn’t work in cases where there is no randomness and the fragmentation process is too regular, for instance, when a jet of liquid breaks up into many droplets of uniform size following deterministic laws of fluid physics, and in some cases where fragments interact with each other during shattering, he says.
#14 The Parking Garage Just Collapsed
#15 I Was Moving My Piano To Storage Since I Don’t Have Space In My New Place. Honestly, A Bit Heartbroken. I Loved This Piano. But I Knew You Guys Would Appreciate It
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#16 $300k Video Wall Came Down Today In Vegas
#17 This Fell Off Our Apartment Block’s Roof. Wife For Scale
Ferenc Kun at the University of Debrecen in Hungary tells New Scientist that because the graph shape explained by Villermaux’s analysis is so common, it isn’t surprising that it comes from a larger principle. At the same time, he says it is impressive how widely it works and how it can be adjusted in some cases where there are extra constraints, such as in plastic, where cracks can sometimes “heal”.
Fragmentation isn’t just an interesting physics problem. Kun says understanding it better could have real-world implications, such as improving how energy is used to shatter ore in industrial mining, or helping us prepare for rockfalls that are increasingly occurring in mountainous regions as global temperatures rise.
#18 When Your Fridge Gives Up The Ghost
#19 The Server Is Down
#20 While Changing My Car Oil And Pouring The New Oil In, I Broke Off The Tip Of The Plastic Funnel, Which Fell Into The Engine
and now requires a mechanic to disassemble the engine so they can fish it out, to the tune of $1,000.
#21 Do Bridges Have Weight Limits?
This is a bunch of years old now, but it happened near me. Apparently, the company doing this house move applied for a permit from the county for this move, but the county rejected the original permit because of the weight limit on this bridge. The county instead ended up issued a permit to take a different (and much longer) route instead. But I guess the driver wanted to save a few minutes.
The house was eventually extricated from this situation and sits in its new home a couple of miles east of this bridge to this day. I wonder if the new residents even know the history? (and if they checked the beams underneath for damage!)
The road in that location was closed for at least a year while the bridge was rebuilt.
#22 That’s Not Good. I Hope Nobody Was Injured
#23 So This Just Happened
#24 The Top Of This Church Just Fell Off Overnight Without Any Bad Weather At All
#25 Last Year, We Got A Paddington Bear Statue. Last Night, This Happened To Him
#26 An Unfortunate Scenario
#27 On My Way To Class
#28 How Does Someone Lose That?
#29 Mom Tried To Mow The Lawn Yesterday
I called her for Mother’s Day today due to the distance I can’t visit, and she told me her lawnmower broke in half while trying to use it. I didn’t understand her and asked for a photo. This is what she sent me.
#30 Where’s The Rest Of You?
#31 The Front Fell Off
#32 The Apparent Dangers Of Roof Racks
#33 The Shoe Decided To Fall Apart Before My Wedding
#34 Part Of My Roof Fell Down A Day Before Leaving On Vacation
#35 The Headboard Fell On Top Of My Head In The Middle Of The Night While I Was Sleeping
Now I have a major headache. I’m just glad my baby wasn’t sleeping on my chest tonight.
#36 Troll Dolls’ Hair Fell Off
#37 It’s A Balcony. If It Falls, It’s A Sidewalk
#38 The Cabinet Fell Off The Wall While I Was Out. Handmade Dishes I’ve Collected From Little Shops And Farmers’ Markets Over The Years, Now Shattered
I guess it’s fine, I don’t have dishes anymore, since the cabinet knocked open the fridge door, ruining all my food.
#39 The Front Part Fell Off My Hotel Door Key Reader – I Didn’t Know There Were AA Batteries Involved
#40 The Bottom Of The Slow Cooker Pot Fell Off, Spilling 6 Liters Of Hot Pineapple Juice Everywhere. The Kitchen Will Be Sticky Until The End Of Time
#41 The Oven Bulb Melted And Fell On My Pizza
#42 Whoopsies
My mom (in the industry) recommended her neighbors a trusted contractor, but they declined and chose a cheaper option… Apparently, the awning has been like this for months.
#43 My Sink Fell Off
#44 My Oven Hood Fell Off The Wall Randomly Today
I was sitting in my room and heard an extremely loud burst of banging. I ran out to find this. My heat also randomly stopped working today, and then the window of my car wouldn’t roll down during a drive-thru.
Also, I rent, so I’m guessing this was put up with the landlord specifically.
#45 The Way This USB Charger Broke Off In The Wall
#46 I Dropped A Box Of Crayons, And Most Of The Tips Fell Off
#47 One “R” Fell Perfectly Off Of An Oreo
#48 Part Of A United Airlines Engine Fell Off A Plane
#49 I Was Washing My Plate, And The Whole Bottom Broke Off
#50 I Was Opening The Door, And At First The Handle Broke, Then This Happened. I Just Wanted Pizza
#51 The Dartboard Fell Apart And Was Actually Just A Painted Roll Of Cardboard Sheets
#52 The Front Fell Off
#53 Can Someone Spot The Problem?
#54 The Key Broke Off Inside The Lock Of A Very Important Work Door. Wonder How Much Trouble I Am In
#55 The Bottom Of My Cup Just… Fell Off. I Am Wearing A Whole Glass Of Milk
#56 My Dad’s Retirement Plaque Is Just Another Person’s With A Sheet Of Metal Over It
The plaque recently fell off the wall and broke, and when I was fixing it, I noticed that the two names were totally different.
#57 The Handle Just Broke Off My Brand-New Cast-Iron Skillet. I Haven’t Even Cooked Anything With It Yet
#58 Never Worn, Several Years Old Shoes Disintegrated When Put On
#59 I Have Spine Surgery Tomorrow, So I Went Antiquing To Get My Mind Off It. Fell In Love With This 100-Year-Old Horse, Only For It To Snap The Second I Got Home
