The Snail–Racehorse Problem

Abstract

This chapter doesn’t revolve around brave civil servants or the Big Easy. Or for that matter, any other group sent out to collect snails and for whom these little creepers turn out to be a tad too fast. No, no, quite the opposite; in this chapter, we’d like to demonstrate that these creatures are actually not that slow and can, under certain circumstances, challenge a racehorse. We need only to make one change to the location where a snail is typically found: It sits on a rubber band that is pulled by a racehorse.