Why do we call it "combination lock"? [closed]
Variation lock seems more accurate by mathematical definitions
Edit(to give it more context)
- Hey, can you tell me the combination of your lockbox ?
Why don't we say variation(or permutation)? The order matters in this case and combination is an unordered set of numbers.
Solution 1:
Because most people are not mathematicians.
I know that sounds like a flippant answer, but it's genuinely the answer. There are many words which have a more precise (or even different) meaning for specialists, and the fact is that these words simply have both meanings. The question "Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" is an all too familiar example: to a botanist, it's a fruit; to most of us, it's a vegetable.
So the fact that mathematicians use "combination" in a more restricted way is irrelevant to almost everybody who uses the locks.
Solution 2:
combination is an unordered set of numbers
That is incorrect in general English.
It is called a combination lock because (in general English)
a combination is "an ordered sequence" (Merriam-Webster definition 2a).
You tagged the question with: etymology, names, and mathematics, but you won't get an answer that combines the three because mathematics/statistics give the term "combination" a specific meaning which is (usually) at odds with the general English use case.
It is however, common enough to be in the dictionary definition referenced above (definition 2c).
Solution 3:
COMBINATION means an arrangement in a particular order that can be used to open some types of lock. Combinations can be hideous or horrible or agreeable.In combination lock we imagine that agreeable situation that unlocks. 'Variations' does not give this idea of agreement of one with the other. An example:
- She had then shot the bolts and turned the knob of the combination as she had seen Mr Adams do.(Jimmy Valentine — by O. Henry)
Solution 4:
Examples have been found from Roman times and museums have examples circa 1200 when, the Muslim engineer Al-Jazari documented a combination lock.
CC-BY-SA 3.0 Sigismund von Dobschütz
Perhaps the name was popularised since 1909 because it was patented as a physical object, not a mathematical concept.
Thus it's the way that "word combination" locks the usage.
My invention is an improvement in locks and consists in certain novel constructions and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed.
The object of the invention is to provide a combination padlock, of simple and cheap construction, which will be strong and durable, and not liable to get out of order easily, and in which the combination may be easily changed.
It is simply the combination of characters that let us pick holes in the term.