This has been bothering me for a while but I was reminded of it when I started playing Skyrim again. In the dungeons there are some mechanic works, examples including:
- Lever controlled heavy doors and bridges
- Pressure plate controlled traps
- Traps disabled by levers
- Puzzles that require a certain combination
- Even more crazy things in Dwemer Ruins (I guess magic shenanigans are involved there so no need to consider this)
These doesn'tsystems don't seem feasible to me because:
- Heavy doors and bridges require a high amount of power. Some of those doors are made out of steel and I guess some must weight up to 2 tons. How can a mechanic structure lift it in a world when there is no electricity, with just a pull of lever?
- Some of the bridges that are controlled by levers are across a gap, so there is not a direct connection. I guess the chain mechanism goes around the gap but wouldn't that increase friction and need more power?
- Combination puzzles require some kind of logic, right?
- These ruins are ancient. How could the traps and such still work? Don't they get rusty? What if a rat sneaks in to the mechanism and gets stuck there?
- These systems are not even uncommon. You can find one dungeon in every 10 minute of walk.
How these systems work would and how feasible they are? Also some examples from real world would be good.