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This YouTube video shows a snail crawling over the edge of a razor blade without being harmed.

enter image description here

The author claims that:

To us, slug and snail slime is gooey and gross but the mucus is one of nature's best lubricants and allows a mollusc to glide over sharp objects unharmed. But something as razor sharp as, well - a razor blade? Watch the video and see.

How does the snail avoid being cut by the razor blade? Is the author correct in saying that it is because of the action of the snail lubricant?

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    $\begingroup$ While physics might be able to answer how a particular mechanism works, it is purely the realm of biology to say which mechanisms are employed by living organisms to achieve their ends. $\endgroup$
    – user10851
    Mar 7, 2016 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ If the snail can hold itself up by using the plane sides, there might be no weight in the edge at all. Thus no cutting $\endgroup$
    – Steeven
    Mar 7, 2016 at 15:43
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    $\begingroup$ And snails aren't that heavy. You need to apply force to actually cut something. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Mar 7, 2016 at 16:04

1 Answer 1

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  • Snails are light
  • They move not by sliding but through a wave of "up-forward-down" along their "foot/belly", quite a continuous equivalent of the discrete motion of the caterpillar.
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