black box vs path

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. 

path

noun
  • A method or direction of proceeding. 

  • A slot available for allocation to a railway train over a given route in between other trains. 

  • Pathology. 

  • A sequence of vertices from one vertex to another using the arcs (edges). A path does not visit the same vertex more than once (unless it is a closed path, where only the first and the last vertex are the same). 

  • A metaphorical course or route; progress. 

  • A trail for the use of, or worn by, pedestrians. 

  • A continuous map f from the unit interval I=[0,1] to a topological space X. 

  • A course taken. 

  • A Pagan tradition, for example witchcraft, Wicca, druidism, Heathenry. 

  • A human-readable specification for a location within a hierarchical or tree-like structure, such as a file system or as part of a URL. 

verb
  • To navigate through a file system directory tree (to a desired file or folder). 

  • To make a path in, or on (something), or for (someone). 

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