Snail goes around the world, how much time it would take to it make a lap?

[The_Pink_God]

Let's take a snail, give it Immortality 1, make it so it is impossible to kill by conventional and unconventional means, make it have Limitless Stamina, and make it run a straight line that goes around the world with no interruptions at all
How much time would the snail take to make a lap?

 

[Imaginym]

No interruptions? So for example, no wind pushing it back, tumbling down hills, or being washed off-course by water?

Even then, the answer can still vary in theory because of routing, because....


Well, for one, the Earth isn't a perfect sphere.

"The radius of Earth at the equator is 3,963 miles (6,378 kilometers), according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. However, Earth is not quite a sphere. The planet's rotation causes it to bulge at the equator. Earth's polar radius is 3,950 miles (6,356 km) — a difference of 13 miles (22 km).
https://www.space.com/17638-how-big-is-earth.html
Using those measurements, the equatorial circumference of Earth is about 24,901 miles (40,075 km). However, from pole to pole — the meridional circumference — Earth is only 24,860 miles (40,008 km) around. Our planet's shape, caused by the flattening at the poles, is called an oblate spheroid."

https://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/graphics/arctic-circle.jpg

The Arctic Circle is roughly 16,000 km (9,900 mi) in circumference.[10] The area north of the Circle is about 20,000,000 km2 (7,700,000 sq mi) and covers roughly 4% of Earth's surface.


So depending on what part of the world you're going around, the distance could vary by thousands of kilometers.
& since the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, whether you go around its EQUATORIAL CIRCUMFERENCE or its MERIDIONAL CIRCUMFERENCE makes a difference of about 67 KM! Human or snail, I think 67 KM is still a big difference to either of them.


As for the snail itself, to my surprise, finding an AVERAGE speed for a snail is annoyingly difficult, so here's what Wikipedia says about the TOP SPEED of a garden snail:
The snail moves at a top speed of 1.3 centimetres per second[46] (47 meters per hour or ~50 yards per hour),[47]
Another study says 1 meter per hour, AKA 0.0277777778 centimeters per second.

So whether you're considering the species & the study or not, it's annoyingly difficult to find concrete info on average speed.


But for simplicity's sake, let's go with Wikipedia's claim about the top speed (Despite that it's about 46.8 times faster. Maybe different methods of study?), & use the equatorial circumference of Earth.

Obviously, it could still vary, though. Most parts of the world, including those on the equator -Like South America & Africa- have hills & mountains to cross.
So is our straight line snail just tunneling through any changes in elevation like a drill?
& what about the sea?

Would it travel along the seafloor? & would it go over, or through any obstructing changes in elevation?
Would it crawl across the surface of the water?

Or does the "make it run a straight line that goes around the world with no interruptions at all" part mean such a path has been carved for it? Lol.

But anyway, the rough estimation of an answer from me....
Wikipedia's surprisingly fast 1.3 cm/s top speed for the snail, with a 40,075 km Equatorial Circumference of the Earth.

The snail would need roughly 97.686711 years to travel this surreal circle.

Most snails live less than a year, maybe 2 or 3. Larger species live up to 10 years, & those in captivity, like H. pomatia can live up to 25 years. But living nearly 98 years? Out of the question.
Still, I'm sure any snail that can live nearly 2 & a half decades making this arduous, adventurous journey would accumulate some awesome accolades. Even with all the physical ability, I wonder if a creature like a snail wouldn't start giving up at some point.... Lol.

But yes. With the Immortality & conditions given in the OP, & some very rough estimations, it could do it in a little under 98 years.... Give or take a few orders of magnitude, lol.

 

[The_Pink_God]

Almost a goddamn century!?
Jesus Christ

 

[Imaginym]

Almost a goddamn century!?
Jesus Christ

Well, like I said, give or take a few orders of magnitude. For one, the snail top speed of 1.3 cm/s I used was what Wikipedia cited.
But a study I forgot to link gives the figure of 1 meter per hour, which compared to 1.3 centimeters per second, is 46-point-8 times SLOWER.

So this could take 4,571.73807 years instead! Have fun waiting until almost the year 6,700 for this to finish! Lol.

Even if you want to use a circumference of the Earth, the Earth has two. The equatorial circumference, & the meridional circumference.
The good news is, the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, & so the meridional circumference isn't as big, being 67 km shorter. (Though, either way, any terrain that isn't flat ground slows you down. Diagonals means pits, & trenches, & bodies of water, hills & mountains, after all! Pesky diagonals!)
The other good news is I only sought out average speeds (& was only told top speeds.), but I didn't actually seek out THE FASTEST snail speeds.

As it turns out, there seems to be some misinformation spread about snail speed. While one "Archie" is cited as the fastest ever....

"The average speed of a snail clocks in at around 0.03 mph, although a snail named Archie went nearly double that in 1995, setting the world record time at 2 minutes and 20 seconds."

Problem is.... Well, a quick look at a few of the snail racing rules make the issue evident:

• They must start behind the inner circle.
• The winner is the first to reach the outer circle.
• The distance from the inner to the outer circle is 13 inches (33 centimetres).

The snails just have to go 13 inches (Which is actually 33 POINT 0.2 centimeters.) outwards from the center. If they travel 13 in/33.02 cm in Archie's record of time 2 minutes, 20 seconds....

0.235857143 centimeter per second. (0.00527597403 miles per hour; Almost 5.7 times slower than Archie's alleged speed.)


So yeah, it seems like there's some kind of faulty research/sourcing going on.

This seems to claim the 0.03 mph speed is from "The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1999. New Jersey: Primedia, 1998: 572.", which gives a quote saying 0.03 mph. If such a snail speed DOES exist, it's easily the world record for snails. But since we're trying to find the fastest snail speed anyway, & it's not in metric, let's convert it to metric.
1.34112 centimeters / second


So, around the 40,008 km meridional circumference, with that speed?
94.5332331 years

3 years faster! It'd be a little harder to find a snail that fast, & it's still longer than your average human lifespan by a decade or 2 & a half, & a lot of the saved time is because we're going around the Earth more vertically than horizontally, lol....
But I think anyone who has to wait nearly a century -As with most timeframes of that scale- will be happy about any years they can shave off the wait, lol.

Pardon all the words, please.

 

[The_Pink_God]

Interesting...

 

[Imaginym]

Interesting...

Glad to help answer your question. I just hope I wasn't DISTASTEFULLY thorough.