attachment vs black box

attachment

noun
  • A device attached to a piece of equipment or a tool. 

  • The means by which something is physically attached. 

  • Taking a person's property to satisfy a court-ordered debt. 

  • The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching. 

  • A strong bonding with or fondness for someone or something. 

  • A file sent along with a message, usually an email. 

  • The act or process by which any (downward) leader connects to any available (upward) streamer in a lightning flash. 

  • A dependence, especially a strong one. 

black box

noun
  • A theoretical construct or device with known input and output characteristics but unknown method of operation. 

  • A flight recorder; the brightly colored cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in an aircraft designed to aid in determining the cause of an accident. 

  • A device used in phreaking that prevents the calling party from being billed for the call placed. 

  • A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms. 

  • Any similar device on motor vehicles, such as rail event recorders and ship trip recorders. 

verb
  • To focus on the inputs and outputs without worrying about the internal complexity. 

How often have the words attachment and black box occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )