# speed **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887 "2005-11-13T20:56:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ms.deanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@ms.deanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ms.deanna)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/1 "2005-11-13T20:56:40Z")
What’s faster? A snail or a slug? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/2 "2005-11-13T21:39:12Z")
Can’t believe I’m looking this up, but the question is interesting. [Speed of a Snail](http://hypertextbook.com/facts/AngieYee.shtml). .003 MPH. Slug is harder, because I keep getting shotgun slugs. Be back when I find it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/3 "2005-11-13T21:43:06Z")
[urlurl=http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/nurspest/slugs.htm]Speed of a banana slug. > [@](#): > > Banana slugs have been clocked at 6 ½ inches (16.5 cm) per minute (about the speed of a line in the grocery store). The milky slug will travel up to 40 feet (12.2 m) in a single night. Someone else can translate which is faster. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/4 "2005-11-13T21:45:22Z")
Sigh…sorry about the awful coding. But here’s some more facts, from this [place](http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Woods/3702/snails.html): > [@](#): > > . . . that snails is the largest group of mollusks? > > . . . that limpets, welks, and periwinkles are snails too? > > . . . that slugs are snails that lost their shells? > > . . . that the fastest type of snail is the speckled garden snail ( helix aspersa )? It’s top speed is 0.0313 mph or 55 yds per hour compared to the 0.00036 mph or 23" per hour of other species. > > . . . that the fastest garden snail, “Archie”, was owned by Carl Bramham. It covered a 13" course in 2 minutes. > > . . . that the largest land snail is the African Giant Snail ( Achantica sp. ). “Gee Geronimo”, found by Christopher Hudson, measured 15 1/2" from snout to tale ( shell length 10 3/4" ) and weighed 2 lbs. > > . . . that in 1846, 2 desert snails ( eremina desertorum ) were presented to the British Museum in London as " dead " exhibits, but 4 years later, in March 1850, one of them was found to be still alive. It lived for two more years until it fell into a topor and died. > > . . . that there is a bioluminescent, glow-in-the-dark , snail ( )? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/5 "2005-11-13T21:46:02Z")
What’s faster, a pickup truck or pickup truck pulling a travel trailer? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/6 "2005-11-13T22:29:32Z")
Of the two species of slug mentioned, the banana slug is by far the faster (assuming that the listed speed for the milky slug is for constant movement). 16.5 cm per minute translates to 0.00275 m/s (40 feet per night is only about a tenth of that). The speed listed for general garden snails translates to 0.014 m/s, and for Archie in particular, it’s 0.033 m/s. So thus far, it looks like the snails are the winners, unless we can find a species or specimen of slug much faster than the banana slugs. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/7 "2005-11-14T00:09:50Z")
**Chronos** , thank you for translating that. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speed/330887/8 "2005-11-14T02:32:46Z")
What if you dropped them both off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa at rhe same time?