• Question: how far does a snail travel in 1 day?

    Asked by lupopippa to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi lupopippa,
      I had no idea on this one, so I resorted to google, where I found the following entry:

      “A garden snail named Archie, owned by Carl Branhorn of Pott Row, England, covered a 13 inch course in 2 minutes at the 1995 World Snail Racing Championships, held in Longhan, England.”

      I didn’t even know they had snail-racing! I wonder if people bet on it like the horse racing!

      But with these figures, we can work out how far a snail could cover: there are 1440 minutes in a day. So 13 inches, or about 30cm, in 2 minutes, means 21600 cm (or 216m) in 1440 minutes (1 day). So a snail could travel about 200m in a day. Not very far – Usain Bolt could run that in under 20 seconds.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi lupopippa,

      James V’s answer is amazing! Love it!

    • Photo: Gemma Purser

      Gemma Purser answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I think Archie is probably the snail equivalent to Usain Bolt!! Zoomer owned by Anton Lucas of Ashwicken who won in 2011 managed the course in 3 minutes 23 seconds, maybe thats evolution and snails are getting slower! haha! 🙂

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hey lupopippa,

      suppose it depends if he has somewhere to be

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