Open The Door With Torque

On most household doors, there are two points of torque. One with the turning of the handle to open and release the door and also the points of torque on the hinges which allow the door to move and open. While visiting Rome this past summer, the Roman Forum had many old but well maintained buildings which were used in old roman times as their democratic center. One of the buildings which I took a picture of had these large metal doors which were the originals (over 1000 years old)! They only however had one point of torque because the handle was only a pull handle so there was no torque at that point. On these doors, the point of torque was only on its hinges. As you can see though, as Mr. Kohara explained in class, the handles of the doors are placed on the opposite side of its hinges, so as to increase its lever arm distance, thus increasing its efficiency!