Mouse pads are essential for almost every computer user in the world. It comes in various colors, shapes, and dimensions. Many take this essential computer help tool for granted.

Here’s a list of mouse pad fun facts and trivia that you might not know about. Send this to a friend and see what it says.

1. The first pad was invented by Jack Kelley in 1969.

2. Mouse pads are formally known as CURSOR CONTROL MECHANISM PADS.

3. Until around the 1980s, pad surfaces were made of vinyl.

4. After the steel ball mouse was coated with silicone, this fabric became popular as the newly accepted pad surface.

5. Polished wood or glass surfaces are not ideal as pad surfaces because they interfere with the smoothness of the mouse.

6. The high-end pads are mainly made of high-tech fibers.

7. A pad is also popularly known as a mouse pad.

8. On August 25, 1983, the Oxford English Dictionary included the term “mouse pad” in its Infoworld section.

9. The pad was invented solely to provide computer users with more precision, speed, and comfort.

10. One day, pads will become obsolete with the invention of the increasingly popular modern optical mice.

11. Cutting pieces of tape and placing them on the bottom of your mouse will make it slide effortlessly over any pad.

12. The average size of a mouse pad used in offices and homes is 9.25 “x 7.75”.

13. China is the largest supplier of mouse pads.

14. In England the pads are called mouse pads.

15. When Douglas Engelbart of Stanfor Research introduced the first mouse in 1968, pads were not yet invented.

16. Old pads are now widely reused as cabinet door stoppers, placemats, shelf protectors, fish tank holders, computer keyboard wristbands, drink coasters, and foot gadgets, to name a few.

17. Lap top pads are also called touch pads.

18. In the Oxford English Dictionary, a mouse pad is described as “a stiff or slightly elastic piece of material on which a computer mouse moves.”

19. In August 2000, the mysmart.com push button programmable mouse pad was released, allowing users to navigate web pages as easily as changing channels with a remote control.

20. Eco-friendly mouse pads are made from 95% recycled tires, are optically friendly for superior tracking, durable, and easy to clean.

21. Firefox made its own pads in 2007, available for $ 5 to promote Firefox in the office and on the road.

22. There are some factions that insist that the mouse pad was first invented by Soviet scientist Gregor Vladivostok and later stolen by American nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer.

23. According to Rob Bruening, the sole owner of Kustoom Kartoons, many optical mouse users actually “lost” the use of pads after a few months.

24. A heating pad is used to reduce repetitive motion stress and provide potential therapeutic treatment to the user’s hand and wrist while operating a mouse. The pad is a resistance-type heating element that is embedded in the pad.