How do locks for boats work?

Question

I cannot for the life of me understand how they work on a canal for example. Please dumb it down as much as possible

In: Engineering

Answer 1

I find this kind of thing is [way easier with a visual.](https://www.reddit.com/r/gif/comments/3txykf/how_the_panama_canals_work/)

Each lock is two sets of doors.

* A door opens and the boat enters the space between the doors.
* The door closes behind the boat, so it’s now in the space between the two sets of doors, called a “lock”
* Water is pumped into or drained out of the lock, depending on whether the boat is going from low to high or high to low water.
* Once the water level in the lock matches the leaving direction’s water level, the door in front of the boat opens and it leaves.