apply for or to ?

[laephy]

I though:

apply to a place / person
apply for a thing / position / loan / ..

But in the following sentence I have seen:

The theory has been applied satisfactorily to hard-rod system

what I understand is that the theory has been used to study hard-rod systems.
Then I will put apply for instead of apply to, why is in this case apply to?

 

[2010]

I though:

apply to a place / person
apply for a thing / position / loan / ..

But in the following sentence I have seen:

The theory has been applied satisfactorily to hard-rod system

what I understand is that the theory has been used to study hard-rod systems.
Then I will put apply for instead of apply to, why is in this case apply to?

===Not a teacher===

I have applied for the position of a reporter.

He has applied for it.

When you are the subject, you use "for".

This method will apply to you.

The theory has been applied satisfactorily to hard-rod system