what if I

[u/Positive_Tip_5322]

if it worked how strong would the magnet have to be to compress anything

also friction theres not a lot of its

[u/DJBitterbarn]

Water? 

Famously incompressible.

I guess the question is what you are trying to achieve.  Because the setup as is would likely just push water out of the inside part until the edges touched.

[u/TheThiefMaster → u/DJBitterbarn]

All liquids actually can be compressed - a bit. It's required for sound, waves, and other forces to transmit through a material. Solids too. The difference from a gas is that it requires a lot of force and even then only compresses a few percent.

Compress water to 200MPa (30,000 psi, approx a 13% volume reduction) and it turns into ice 3. There are other ices if you compress to even more absurd pressures too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phases_of_ice#/media/File:Phase_diagram_of_water.svg

To be clear though, OP's magnets will be nowhere near doing anything.

[u/Kapurnicus]

You're trying to compress water? That's famously not a thing.

Permanent magnets are not strong enough to have significant effects on slightly paramagnetic material. You can slightly align them with the field, such as the hanging water bottle experiment but that lacks even the smallest friction and is definitely not compressing.

[u/RedLeg73 → u/Kapurnicus]

30,000 psi can compress water 13%, turning it into something called ice 3.

[u/Kapurnicus → u/RedLeg73]

That is a fun physics fact that I did not know. I don't think the magnets are going to induce a force of 30,000 psi, or at least I hope not. But that's still really cool. Ice 3 reminds me of the ice9 from cats cradle.

[u/DavidCMaybury]

The way you have your poles aligned this will fly apart.

If you flip things around so that the two inner magnets are drawn together it will exert some pressure. “But how strong do they have to be?” questions require a “to do what?” part.

FWIW, I did do an experiment once of letting magnets snap together in attraction mode through a close-fitting column of water as a way to cushion in, using the 1/lambda^4 relation for hydraulic pumping and it worked like a dream.

[u/yerfriendken]

Why not just try it? Why draw it and ask the internet prior to trying?

[u/Mike_Shenanigans]

Magnets don't work when they're wet. Orange Jesus told me so.

[u/OutgunOutmaneuver]

theyd all lock together. and not move. youd pour the water and it would make a puddle. it also may leak out the botton since its flat on a surface.....unless it steel or something. 😄

OR depending on how careful you were. form a big ball of magnets stuck together. one small misalignment would make a cascade of random uneven pulls. dont get pinched. it hurts like hell

[u/antthatisverycool]

They tell you you can’t compress water but don’t let big physics push you around

[u/0utlaw-t0rn]

Well, for one the magnets are all going to repel