We know that one is considered liable if one transfers an item from one domain to another. The rabbis consider whether or not one is considered liable if one carries an object from place to place within a covered public domain.
The rabbis use the example of a basket that is four by four handbreadths. Perhaps it is transferred from one domain to another. Perhaps an object is thrown and lands in the basket, which sits in a different domain. And perhaps that basket is hanging from a pole in the public domain. Does it matter how high off of the ground the basket is sitting, more or less than ten handbreadths? Does it matter whether or not one places food in the basket, passing that food from one private domain to another?
A hand has the legal status of four by four handbreadths. Obviously this is not because of its size, but because of the the lifting and carrying that can be done with one's hands. The rabbis consider one who throws a ball from one domain to another where the ball lands in another person's hand. In fact, they even discuss the hand that gathers rainwater from the sky. Is that an act of lifting? Perhaps this is a case where one is standing on top of a wall, where the rain did not come to rest. We learn the example of another Mishna where an inclined wall does not allow water to come to rest and where a scroll rolls into a karmelit.
Collecting water from a hole is not considered placement, but removing the water would involve lifting. Collecting oil that sits on top of wine is not thought to be possible; they are both connected.
One who carries food within one domain and intend to stay there but moves into another domain does not become liable until one stops moving. When movement stops, one is liable for the act of placement. However, if one did not intend to transfer the object to another domain, one is exempt. This is because one has not met the requirement of intentionality that is part of a complete prohibited labour on Shabbat.
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