this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Your linked source doesn't appear to list that number (It lists 8 cm a minute).

Perhaps you (or a large language model, if you're using one) has it mixed up with this:

"Snails have been measured at speeds of 0.048 kilometres per hour."

From this source.

Also, 1 cm tall would be a very small snail... Approximately the size of your smallest fingernail.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

8 cm/min * 60 min/h * 1e-5 km/cm = 0.0048 km/h

If I'm not completely mistaken.

I'll admit that the "1 cm tall" is guesstimated based on my memory of the snails in my garden.

The linked source also mentions that some snails can be up to ten times as fast as the typical 8 cm/min (0.0048 km/h), but those appear to be maritime snails, while the snail in the image seems to be terrestrial.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Oh yeah you're right 👍

The source I found appears to list the wrong figure.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yea, yea ... you have the math for a snail. Impressive. Could a bird carry it and drop it on people? How big would it have to be? Could you outrun it? What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?