It is that time of the day.

Your final class of the day is starting in five minutes, and you are tired from waking up for your 8 a.m. class and not getting much sleep the night before.

This final class is nearly two hours long, and you need a pick-me-up to stay awake and alert for your class.

You look for the answer to your drooping eyes, and then you see it: A vending machine.

Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper are waiting for you to buy one of them and are willing to help you stay awake.

But one thing a lot of people seem to overlook, myself included, is how do vending machines actually work?

Sure, you put the money in the slot and out pops your drink, but have you ever heard the sound those bottles make when they fall down to the slot you pick it up from?

I swear, when those bottles thump down the track, it sounds like a mini thunderstorm is happening within the machine. With such sounds, I have to wonder how the soda bottles do not explode after being tossed around so much.

What you may be wondering is why I am wondering about something so mundane.

Well, I cannot really give you an answer, other than I have a curious mind that likes to think about random things and ponder them.

Why do toilets flush the way they do?

How does Wi-Fi even work? What sort of signals or things even make Wi-Fi possible?

I just like to think about things and how they work. It just so happens that vending machines were the subject of such thought recently.

The scenario played out where I wanted a soda to help pick me up in the morning, and the soda thudded down the track to the slot for pickup.

I truly pondered for a while that day, and every day since, how the soda bottle did not explode after its very bumpy ride through the machine’s bowels.

We all know not to shake a can or bottle of soda too much because it will explode all over, yet it seems as though these vending machines’ jobs is to shake them that much.

I fear for my clothing every time I get a soda from a vending machine.

But, so far in this 22-year life of mine, no bottle from a vending machine has exploded on me.

Perhaps the better question is why I even care so much.

Dillan Schorfheide is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at dtschorfheide@eiu.edu.