We take everyday things apart so you can see how they work.
Your fridge, your phone charger, the zipper on your jacket. You use them every day, and most of them are sealed shut. Cut It Open opens them up, in Shorts under a minute and in teardowns you can read at your own pace.
Three ways in
Shorts under a minute
A quick look inside one object, built from cutaway animation so you can see the parts move. Every Short links to the full story.
Teardowns
The full explanation: what is inside, what each part does, how it works step by step, the myths, the safety warnings and the sources behind every claim.
Components and principles
The same parts and the same science turn up everywhere. Learn how a capacitor or a heat pump works once, then spot it in machine after machine.
From question to cutaway
Pick the object
We start from the questions people actually ask: things readers send us, what people search for and what puzzles us when we look at an everyday machine.
Go to the primary sources
Manufacturer manuals and datasheets, patents, technical standards, textbooks and peer-reviewed research. Secondary summaries are never treated as sources.
Build the cutaway
We model the object and its parts so the inside can be shown clearly, and label every part we talk about.
Write and fact-check
Every factual claim is checked against a source, and the sources are listed at the end of the article so you can check them too.
Take extra care where it matters
Articles about medical devices, or anything that could hurt you if done wrong, explain how things work and nothing more. They carry clear safety notes and disclaimers, and never tell you what to do about your own health or repairs.
Keep it up to date
We revisit articles when products or evidence change, and fix mistakes in the open.
Our standards
These are the rules every teardown follows. The full details are in our editorial standards.
- Accuracy before speed. We would rather publish later than publish something wrong.
- Sources you can check. Every article lists the references behind it.
- Explanation, not advice. We explain how things work. We do not give medical, legal or repair advice for your situation.
- Corrections in the open. When we get something wrong, we fix it and say what changed.
Who is behind Cut It Open
Cut It Open is an independent project, and every article is published under the Cut It Open name rather than a personal byline. Each teardown starts from primary sources: manuals, datasheets, standards, textbooks and published research. Before anything goes live, every listed source is opened and checked against what the article says, and the whole piece is read again. Anything that cannot be backed by a source comes out.
Got something you want opened up?
Tell us the object you have always wondered about. The best questions become the next Short and teardown.