Open Book To, At, On

Question

I have a question about the prepositions to use with verb and adjective "open":

1a. He opened the book at page 10.
1b. "He opened the book on page 10.
1c. "He opened the book to page 10.

2a. The book fell open at page 10.
2b. The book fell open on page 10.
2c. The book fell open to page 10.

How are 1a, 1b, and 1c different? How are 2a, 2b, and 2c different? Are some of them wrong?

Answer 1

1a - at is a preposition, and "page 10" is an object, not a place.
1b - A better usage of on is:
He opened the book up on page 10.
1c - Probably the most correct.

2a - same as 1a.
2b - This usage makes it seem like the book was open and fell on page 10.
2c - Seems okay.

Answer 2

None of them is "wrong", nor really "different" in meaning, but 1(c) and 2(a) are the preferred expressions (in AmE).

I can't explain why. But here is some confirmation.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=opened+the+book+at+%C2%A0page%2C+opened+the+book+on+page%2C+opened+the+book+to+page&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=17&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Copened%20the%20book%20at%20page%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Copened%20the%20book%20to%20page%3B%2Cc0

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=book+fell+open+at%2C+book+fell+open+on%2Cbook+fell+open+to&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=18&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cbook%20fell%20open%20at%3B%2Cc0