Buy Gold Low Sell Gold High
Earth's gravity field anomalies
An entrepreneur reads about how gravity is different in different places around the world, as this animation shows, and gets a terrific idea of how to make money!
He sees that in Mexico City the gravitational acceleration is while in Helsinki it's . Why not buy gold in Mexico City, and then go to Helsinki and sell it there?
He estimates he can make about $200 profit per kg of gold, based on current gold prices. A single standard gold bar weighs about , meaning roughly $2500 profit per gold bar! He then flies out to Mexico City to put his money-making plan into action.
What's wrong with his plan, and why won't he make any money with it?
GIF animation is public domain, courtesy NASA
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1 solution
In Helsinki, the downward force of the gold bar may very well be greater than the force in Mexico City, but the dealer will be using using standard masses that will exert the same force as the gold bar. He pays according to the sum of the standard masses he has on his scale.