Sometimes even snails like to show off their speed. At the World Snail Racing Championship, snails start in the middle of a table, and have to slime their way to a circle 13 inches out. As we see in the video on this page, they don’t move fast. No snail has beaten the world record of 2 minutes, set by Archie back in 1995. But since most snails move only 3 inches per minute, these speeder snails leave the rest in the dust.
Wee ones: Who’s faster, a snail who finishes the race in 4 minutes, or one who finishes in 3 minutes?
Little kids: If one snail takes 5 hours to cross the street and another takes 9 hours, how much longer does the slower snail take? Bonus: If another snail’s time is halfway between those, how many hours does that 3rd snail take?
Big kids: Most snails move only 3 inches a minute. About how long would it take a regular snail to crawl those 13 inches? Bonus: In what year will Archie’s 1995 record have stood for 50 years?
Answers:
Wee ones: The snail who takes 3 minutes, because that’s the smaller amount of time.
Little kids: 4 more hours. Bonus: 7 hours.
Big kids: About 4 minutes (actually 4 1/3 minutes, or 4 minutes 20 seconds). Bonus: In the year 2045.
