system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If locks are based on the point of the pins, does that mean that my house key can open someone else's house, since there's only a certain number of different combinations?

Basically the title. If my house key is a certain combination of pins, and there's only a certain number of combinations until it repeats, does that mean my key can open someone's house then?
gpt
Yup. There's usually 5 or 6 pins and they have maybe 6 or 7 possible lengths. So that's 7^6 combinations or 117,649. However, with some jiggling and twisting as you insert the key, that number drops dramatically. It's not too uncommon for you to be able to open a lock with the wrong key. From personal experience, I'd say it's closer to 1:100 if you do a good jiggle-and-twist which is actually closer to lock picking than to say the key actually works.