You have 1000 kilograms of clean, fresh water in a single IBC container in Sydney at the Opera house. You will be paid 1 million dollars if you can deliver it to Los Angeles McArthur Park within 3 weeks, or 21 days, or 504 hours. You can split the water into as many containers as you want, and the IBC doesn't need to make it to LA, just the water inside. If you deliver 2000 bottles each containing 500ml of undiluted, clean, fresh water, or like, 99% of it to account for evaporation and some spillage, that counts as a win. You can assume that any partial water deliveries that remain in Sydney or arrive in LA won't be stolen in your absence so you don't need to hire guards. There are no consequences for failing, but if you do fail or succeed, any money you spend on the project, you don't get refunded. Normal consequences for breaking laws apply.

How do you do it, or do you even bother trying?

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[–] 120 points 2 months ago* (6 children)

You can ship 1 ton/1m3 of cargo via any international air freight company to the other side of the world for less than 10,000 dollars.

(Source: I've done it plenty of times)

A day for pickup and transport to the airport in Sydney, 24 hours for actual transit, a day in customs in LA, a day for a truck to deliver it to that location. 5 business days to get that IBC to your destination in LA, tops.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    a day in customs in LA,

    It might take a bit longer, since this is a pretty weird cargo with an even weirder story behind it.

    Still, you should be able to clear it well within the states time

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Nah. It's a very basic checklist type stuff. No one cares about the story, they care about clearing cargo.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    Are you trying me that if I import "water, 1000L, bulk", and someone at customs sees it, it'll be fine?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Yeah. Why wouldn't it be? You can import water to the US. HTS 2201.90.0000 covers the import tariffs, so it depends on the value determined by the importer what your pay. Companies import bottled water all the time. Fiji water is all imported.

    This seriously the global logistics version of asking if it's OK to bring your own bottled sparkling water to a fancy restaurant. It's stupid and will be pointless, and you might pay a corking fee on top of it all, but you very much can, and it's not even a funny story or cool for anyone involved. It's just an odd, smalltime decision.

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  • [–] 55 points 2 months ago*

    1000L of water is literally nothing on a global logistics scale.

    Single transportable tank would hold more than enough. (A fuel truck, for example can hold up to about 45,000L)

    Stick it on a freight aircraft overnight.

    Chill for 20 days and line up how I'm gonna spend my easy money.

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  • [–] 38 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Is this some silly AI training question? 1000kg is the weight of 10 humans with some luggage for each of them, so transporting it by plane shouldn't cost drastically more than 10 passenger airfares. I mean come on. Plus you have to move it around by truck before and after the plane flight. Again no biggie. Clearing customs, who knows.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    Yeah, this seems really odd. Today's shipping industry is worth trillions, fully globalised, and pretty much bookable online. The biggest hurdle is paperwork, and has been for a while.

    Like some others have said standard air freight costs are significantly under that 1M, and take hardly any time compared to 3 weeks.

    This is a "problem" that might be worth millions to solve in the 1700s, but it's been long solved.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    That falls into the regular shipping realm. Any shipping company can handle that.

    To make it challenging we could say that you're not allowed to use the internet, only phone calls.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    I'm pretty sure you could charter a cargo plane that can carry more than a tonne for a lot less than a million.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    Bro, I can ship 1000kg of anything between Sydney and LAX on Quantas Cargo for, at most, $8,000.

    That's the upper estimate, too. Might be cheaper.

    https://suaidglobal.com/insights/air-freight-cost-per-kg/

    You want me to book you something? I'll charge you $508K, and you keep the rest.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (8 children)

    Liquids generally cannot be sent via air freight.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

    You sure about that? Because a lot of logistics companies will gladly tell you how they do. I've shipped liquids by air freight, too. Not a problem as long as the shipper and carrier understand the terms of the contract.

    https://commercialfreightservices.com/shipping-bulk-dry-and-liquids-by-air-freight/

    https://overseasairfreight.com/our-services/international-courier-service-for-liquid/

    https://www.dhl.com/discover/en-hk/logistics-advice/import-export-advice/everything-you-need-to-know-about-shipping-liquids-internationally

    Right now, someone somewhere is shipping more than 1000L of something liquid by air freight. Not sure why you think this is some dastardly mystery. You simply weren't aware of how common it is, is all.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (5 children)

    It is interesting to me that they do honestly. Liquids shift weight a lot, which can be very dangerous to planes. I wonder how they handle it. Maybe they only put it on planes so big that the weight shift is negligable?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    Liquids shift weight based on empty space in the container. Once an aircraft gets to speed, shifts are negligible anyway.

    Also, keep in mind that lavatory water and waste systems in a 747 are more than this silly question in capacity. 4 x 416 liter tanks, filled to 405 liters. So very little slack space to start.

    https://www.scribd.com/document/678025063/ATA-38-51-52-et-56

    Also, aircraft fuel is a liquid. A 747 holds usually more than 200,000 liters of fuel.

    The max cargo capacity of a cargo-oriented 747 is 113,000kg. So 1,000 liters of water in a tank with very little slack is both less than 1% of the total cargo capacity, it's also less than even the water tanks for the sinks and toilets on the passenger version. And less than 0.5% of how much fuel is sloshing around in the tanks.

    https://www.cargolux.com/fleet-equipment/aircraft/747-400f-specifications/

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    Thanks for the great detailed explanation. So ignoring the original silly question. How do smaller commercial planes manage the shifting of fuel and such. I've been on some prop planes that had a bathroom, and in some cases removed passengers because we were overweight.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Fuel is typically stored in the wings, so as it depletes, it doesn't change the center of gravity of the plane with regard to the lift. Center of gravity is very important in smaller planes.

    But there's really not that much sloshing or shifting of liquids after takeoff. The tanks can be segmented, but just like being able to walk in a plane, there's not a lot of shifting overall. It's a constant pull backwards, but that's about it.

    Smaller planes with bathrooms use a more camp toilet kind of system, with less liquid, which is all generally stored and held in the same part of the plane, so no shifting of weight in a large scale. I've been in a 6-seater with a lavatory, and we were basically told to hold it because the crew didn't want to clean the tank. But it was all in a stack in the same part of the body.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Any global freight company could do that. Probably don't even have to pay extra for express delivery to make it in time.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago

    Fed Ex it. It doesn't cost a million dollars to air mail a metric ton of water. I'll have it there in 3 days.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago

    1.000.000$? Just book a private flight. 1.000.000$ is "call the airline" kind of money. Call FedEx or something.

    The smallest cargo planes can carry twice what you want in weight.

    https://wcscargo.com/air-cargo-plane-capacities/

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago

    Isn’t this… how futures and even regular trading works?

    In the simplest form, you sell the water in Sydney, buy in Los Angeles with contract criteria specifying what "clean, fresh water" is to you, done.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 months ago

    IBC tank holds roughly 1000 liters, costs almost nothing and can fit on a truck.

    Even at 300 (over paying) you are on your way.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Water is fungible (or is it non-fungibel)...it's one of those

    Pour out the water in Australia and let it be free.

    Find a hose in LA and refill a new container.

    Nobody will notice the different water.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago

    I know there is a nostupidquestions comm but is there a reallyfuckingstupidquestion comm?

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Is this for a Smokie and The Bandit reboot?

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago

    As others have said, this is very simple, truck the container to the airport, then put it on a cargo aircraft, fly to LA, truck it to the final destination.

    You would even make a large profit.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I'd call the recipient and ask them to turn on the faucet and explain that I'll send the water through that. That'll be $1000000, thanks.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    I give someone 10k to do it for me. He can keep the rest of the 10k.

    I wait a little and get a million.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    I'd call GAC or Pentagon (No, not that pentagon) and book the shipping. They're the ones we use at work for these things, as well as larger stuff, and they're pretty fast and costs a lot less that that kind of money.

    While they organize the physical shipping, I'd call my logistical superhero of a coworker so we can get all the customs stuff out of the way and processed before arrival.

    Once we had to ship four 20ft containers around the world fast, and we ended up booking (via GAC, iirc) an An124. I've been promised that next time we do so, I get to go along.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    Do I get a million for every metric tonne of water transferred?

    It's 12006km from Sydney to Los Angeles as the bird flies. Garden hose is ~$2/m. I'd break even after 25 metric tonnes.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    A garden hose is about 2cm in diameter, you're gonna need a pretty massive pump to get any flow rate to speak of through that hose. I'll be back with numbers for you ;)

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

    The hose itself would require 3.77 million litres to fill. But after that! Profit!

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    I filled an 800 litre hot tub up in abiut 2.5 hours.

    1000 litres won't take long.

    Although you also have to account for distance....

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    I've been a bit busy at work, but I'll deliver on my promise of numbers :D

    I've used the Darcy-Weisbach equation for the pressure drop / flow rate relationship, and assumed

    • We have laminar flow in the hose (which is reasonable)
    • You're delivering water at 1 bar (can't go below that without suction on the receiving side)
    • Viscosity of water: 1.0518 mPa s
    • Viscosity of air: 18.03 micro Pa s
    • Your hose is indestructible, and can therefore tolerate arbitrarily large pressures.
    • You have the pump ready at day 0, and the hose is already stretched out at day 0.

    The biggest pumps I could find (1, 2, 3) can deliver water at 400 MPa, with pretty high flow rates (much larger than what we can support with our hose). We're talking about pumps that draw on the order of 1 MW of power.

    We start pumping water into the air-filled hose at 4 000 bar on day 0.

    After two days, the water front has moved about 1000 km along the hose. Flow rate is at about 1.2 L/s, and pressure at the water front is at a solid 450 bar. This is looking good.

    After one week, the water front has moved about 2000 km along the hose. Flow rate is now at about 0.6 L/s, and pressure at the water front has fallen to 200 bar. You begin to worry.

    After two weeks, the water front is now at 3100 km. Flow rate has further fallen to 0.4 L/s, and pressure is at 150 bar. The pressure on you to deliver is substantially higher.

    After three weeks, water has been pumped 3900 km, and is moving at a speed of 1.15 m/s. Pressure at the water front is around 100 bar. The guys that loaned you money for the massive pump and indestructible hose are lurking around your house.

    About 100 days later, the first water starts flowing out of the hose in LA at a flow rate of about 0.5 L/s. It would take you about half an hour to fill the 1000 L tank at this rate. Too bad the tank was impounded by the guys that loaned you the pump and indestructible hose. You have gone into hiding.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    I open a sink in Sydney, and do the same in Los Angeles to fill 1000 bottles. Water transfered in a few minutes.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 months ago

    Step 1: Dump the water into the Parramatta

    Step 2: Fly to Los Angeles

    Step 3: Buy an IBC container and fill it from a fresh water source.

    Done. The water in the IBC is the same water you left in Sydney. Prove it isn't.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    Put it on a plane.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    I'd be surprised if you can't just ship it with UPS or FedEx.

    I wouldn't trust Australia Post, they can't even ship a box of crockery across the country without it crossing the nullarbor five times.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    The only person who could fuck this is up is George Bush: See also, Hurricane Katrina.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    why are you asking this?

    are you new on Earth?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    I would just pay to have it shipped. That’s like four pallets at most.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Would ask for the details about that water( quality , application and so on). Than I will offer them a cheaper source located near the destination. Doing such logistics would be absulutely stupid (Except for water of ultra high purity or large Deuterium/Tritium contents)

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