Without a key in the lock, the driver pins (blue) are pushed downwards, preventing the plug (yellow) from rotating.

When an incorrect key is inserted into the lock, the key pins (red) and driver pins (blue) do not align with the shear line; therefore, it does not allow the plug (yellow) to rotate.

When the correct key is inserted, the gaps between the key pins (red) and driver pins (blue) align with the edge of the plug (yellow).

With the gaps between the pins aligned with the shear line, the plug (yellow) can rotate freely.

Reason

I feel that this image shows how pin tumbler locks in a very easy-to-understand way. I am proposing these images as a {{ FeaturedPictureSet}}.

Articles this image appears in

Pin tumbler lock

Creator

--Pbroks13 ^talk?

• Support as nominator -- --Pbroks13 ^talk? 08:47, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support. Fairly easy to understand, particularly with the captions. A good diagram set and very informative. Diliff | (Talk) (Contribs) 12:41, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support Excellent illustration of the concept. Durova ^Charge! 18:18, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support though I would prefer a rasterized format over unreliable svg. de Bivort 18:39, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
  • Why do you say that vector images are unreliable? --Pbroks13 ^talk? 19:13, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
    • SVG renders differently on different browsers and has font embedding isssues. Your images looked ok on my screen though. de Bivort 23:48, 4 January 2009 (UTC) reply
      • We just delisted raster versions, although now we can make higher-rez rasters.-- HereToHelp ^{( talk to me)} 00:31, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply
      • That is very true, SVGs do tend to have font issues; however, they can be eliminated quite easily. Overall, SVG images are considered superior to (most) raster images. --Pbroks13 ^talk? 03:59, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply
        • People always say this, and then it's easy to find person X with browser Y that can't see half the fonts, or they render ugly. Raster is easier, and I don't really care about *infinite* scalability. de Bivort 17:08, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
          • Yeah I agree with you, although it is also fairly trivial to render a raster image at at least 3000x2000ish, making it more than enough for just about any practical publishing use, a lot of people seem to create them at unreasonably low res. Diliff | (Talk) (Contribs) 18:42, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support Very enc, informative SVGs.-- HereToHelp ^{( talk to me)} 00:28, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support Per above. Shoemaker's Holiday ( talk) 17:51, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support per Diliff. Fletcher ( talk) 23:46, 5 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support impressive. Spencer ^{T♦ C} 01:49, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Comment I think these images can be, and should be, made into 1 or 2 images. You would lose nothing on technical grounds, and the sole page they are used on looks cumbersome. smooth0⁷0₇ ( talk) 04:26, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Strong Support Hey! I understand the Pin tumbler lock now. Makeemlighter ( talk) 04:44, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support - Nice and clear -- Alvesgaspar ( talk) 15:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support But I'd like to see the colour of the incorrect key changed, IMHO there isn't enough contrast between it and and the rotated correct key directly below (since the lighting makes that dark grey) Noodle snacks ( talk) 01:07, 7 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Support - very descriptive images. Jauerback ^dude?/ _dude. 14:42, 7 January 2009 (UTC) reply
• Oppose this as a featured set (and the concept of featured sets), Support if it is merged into a single image. It's far more usable, both in articles and as a reference for users to download if it's just one image. Can always link from the image page to separate images. -- jjron ( talk) 13:52, 9 January 2009 (UTC) reply
  • That could work, but that would mean that the caption would be incredibly long. And, I think that the descriptive captions really help with explaining the images. However, if you can figure a way to make it work with one image, please let me know. --Pbroks13 ^talk? 19:16, 9 January 2009 (UTC) reply
    • Sure. Refer to my merged FP 'set' File:Nectarine Fruit Development.jpg and its article usage. If images really belong in a set, this is how I believe they should be done - as one image. For yours, being as it's such a prominent part of that article, there's no reason the article itself couldn't contain a lengthy description which refers specifically to this image (aka the caption). -- jjron ( talk) 15:11, 10 January 2009 (UTC) reply
      • But how could you combine the zoom sequences of the Mandelbrot set|200px set? Mathematically, they are all part of the same subject, but I do not consider an such a large image (petapixels and gigabytes) a viable alternative. The community felt that the standalone image was iffy, but the zoom sequence was superb.-- HereToHelp ^{( talk to me)} 18:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC) reply

Promoted File:Pin tumbler with key.svg -- Wronkiew ( talk) 06:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC) reply

File:Pin tumbler bad key.svg

File:Pin tumbler with key.svg

File:Pin tumbler unlocked.svg

Were promoted as well. seresin (  ¡? )  09:58, 17 January 2009 (UTC) reply