What is the maximum weighted earth-mover's distance (as defined in [Sun et. al. 2010][1]) between two permutations in $\mathfrak S_n$ where the transposition $(i, i+1)$ has cost given by weight $w_i$. In other words [![enter image description here][2]][2] Is it $$(n-1)w_1 + (n-2) w_2 + \cdots + w_{n-1}$$ for the permuations $(12\cdots n)$ and $(n(n-1)\cdots 1)$? Apologies if this is a very obvious question! [1]:http://theanalysisofdata.com/gl/searchEngineVis.pdf [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/vG3mq.png