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It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

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Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#161

Post by deepspace »

ben_w wrote: post #30
droopyEyelids wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be impossible to put neutron star material inside a cardboard box, and the original post was talking about possibility.

If I remember right, given that free neutrons aren’t stable and have a very short half life, it would be explosively unwise even if it was physically possible.

Yes, a free neutron decays to a proton, an electron and an electron neutrino with a half life of 879 seconds. This decay releases 0.8MeV of energy (mostly in the form of kinetic energy of the electron).

My back of the envelope calculation shows that 1 gram of neutronium (approximately a mole) will release 43MW of energy continuously. Multiply that by 10^14 (the number of grams of neutronium per teaspoon) and the resultant energy release would be unimaginably huge. 'Explosively' does not even begin to describe it.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#163

Post by dawnerd »

jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

Likewise some airlines don't even require someone to fly. I knew someone that would ship very expensive camera gear to film productions directly with an airline. They would check the cases and send it off. Someone would just go and pick it up. Obviously only really works if you're not dealing with customs.

https://www.deltacargo.com/Cargo/

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#164

Post by laverya »

laverya wrote: post #60
idiotsecant wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uranium at it's elemental density is a comparable price to tungsten??

Yeah, it's part of what makes it so fantastic as armor piercing ammunition. And tank armor.

6 hours later, I'm an idiot who read density instead of price.

Funny thing is, while Depleted Uranium is about the same density as tungsten, it's also a fair bit cheaper (for major nuclear governments) because it's an otherwise nearly useless byproduct of the uranium enrichment process, and there's around a million tons of it sitting in storage worldwide.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#165

Post by rags2riches »

dawnerd wrote: post #163
jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

Likewise some airlines don't even require someone to fly. I knew someone that would ship very expensive camera gear to film productions directly with an airline. They would check the cases and send it off. Someone would just go and pick it up. Obviously only really works if you're not dealing with customs. https://www.deltacargo.com/Cargo/

I thought terrorists had done the "check your bag and don't board" thing enough for it to be disallowed. But maybe this story took place a long time ago?

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#167

Post by slavik81 »

jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

> I've had friends who worked in the oil and gas industry. One story I was told was where parts were desperately needed to repair a drill bit on a gas platform. The best option? Someone would fly halfway around the world, drive to a particular factory, wait for the parts and then fly back. This was cheaper and faster than any courier service, even if you spent $10,000+ on the ticket.

I was a summer student at a company that manufactured top drives for drill rigs. My days were mostly spent filing drawings and preparing documentation packages. One morning when I arrived at work, the head of the department asked me, "do you have a passport?"

He gave me a package of documents, an 18" machined steel rod and tickets for a flight that was roughly three hours from takeoff.

After driving home to pick up my passport and then across town to the airport, I didn't have enough time to check bags or even read the documentation I'd been given. I guessed the value of the part being 'under $1000' and US customs took me aside. While I was waiting, I read the documentation and discovered it was worth ~$50, though customs let me go before I could tell them.

Shockingly, I didn't have any trouble at security carrying the metal rod. I stepped onto the plane and they closed the doors behind me.

I was told that the downtime cost around $100,000 per hour, and that I was bringing the second replacement part. The first one sent was too small, which delayed repairs by a day.

In any case, that was my first (and thus far only) visit to Grand Junction, Colorado. I was kind of surprised that Canadian customs gave me way more hassle on my return the next day, despite that I had all my documents in order by then.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#168

Post by nobody9999 »

giantg2 wrote: post #74
apricot wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the best name I can imagine for an anvil.

People who watched the road runner growing up might like "Acme" anvils.

>People who watched the road runner growing up might like "Acme" anvils.

These days, Acme is better known for these[0]. :)

[0] https://www.kleinbottle.com/

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#169

Post by Closi »

paxys wrote: post #69
ortusdux wrote: post #29

I have a 115lb shipment of small metal parts that needs to be across the country before Wed. Both FedEx and UPS quoted me ~$750 to ship it in a 12"x8"x8" OSB box via 2-day shipping. Fedex one rate boxes have a weight limit of 50lbs. The small boxes are $31/ea to ship. I just finished breaking the shipment up into 3 parts. Heck, next day would be ~$300.

There's a reason for it. Package sizes and weight limits are optimized for workers who are going to carry them. So yes in your case the total weight loaded on to the truck or plane may be the same, but loading/unloading 3x40 lb boxes and carrying them to your front porch is very different from doing the same with a single 115 lb box. Airlines work the same way. 2x50 lb bags cost $30 each. One single 100lb bag has a $…

Usually large items go through an entirely different delivery network because the whole parcel delivery chain will be designed around weight limits - I.E. that weight might not be able to go through the automated sorter, and there is very limited capacity for manual workarounds for individual parcels.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#170

Post by ultimoo »

toufka wrote: post #127
Spooky23 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One time someone in our family needed drugs delivered on a very time sensitive basis. The specialty pharmacy fucked around and found out. I social engineered my way up the chain of command, interrupting the medical director’s dinner. They ended up hiring a courier to fly it halfway across the country. A dude showed up the doorstep at 4AM (four hours before it was needed) with a box packed with dry ice. The poor couri…

There are opposite versions of that story where the drug is a specialized 1-off custom living biological product (often a patient's own engineered immune cells). An entire company's years of effort and existence are tightly coupled to a patient's survival, and sometimes they're hundreds of miles apart. Those plane tickets, with coolers of ice in hand, are crazy to me. And yeah, there are those cases where batch 1 was…

This sounds fascinating -- do tell more! Was this for a large cap company CEO?
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