Why can the word "fusion" mean either "combining" or "breaking/melting" in different contexts?
The word "fusion" is at times confusing because in a way it has two opposite meanings:
- Combining things together, for example "nuclear fusion".
- Melting/breaking things, for example, "latent heat of fusion" (here "fusion" means melting and hence bond breaking), "fuse" (an electric component which breaks when it overloads to protect the circuit).
Of course, we often need to break something before combining them together, so the two "opposite" meanings are somewhat related. But is there better explanation for the use of the word "fuse"?
Solution 1:
I think this dictionary definitions helps:
Physics
short for nuclear fusion
‘the center of the Sun where fusion occurs’
and your second version:
The process of causing a material or object to melt with intense heat so as to join with another.
‘the fusion of resin and glass fiber in the molding process’
The every day meaning:
Music that is a mixture of different styles, especially jazz and rock. ‘jazz fusion’
The statement "melt with intense heat so as to join with another" and generate a new material is close to the everyday use of the word. Nuclear fusion is also a joining of atoms to become a new state of matter, but is more demanding in the definition of "new matter" .
I think physics terms evolve from every day usages, and then, when mathematics enters have to be defined for the specific context, i.e.nuclear or solid state, or liquid.