Herbert Hooves the deer is going for a hike: one clockwise loop around his favorite circular trail, starting at degree zero. Herbert has perfect control over his speed, which can be any nonnegative value (not necessarily an integer) at any time -- he can change his speed instantaneously whenever he wants. When Herbert reaches his starting point again, the hike is over.
The trail is also used by human hikers, who also walk clockwise around the trail. Each hiker has a starting point and moves at her own constant speed. Humans continue to walk around and around the trail forever.
Herbert is a skittish deer who is afraid of people. He does not like to have encounters with hikers. An encounter occurs whenever Herbert and a hiker are in exactly the same place at the same time. You should consider Herbert and the hikers to be points on the circumference of a circle.
Herbert can have multiple separate encounters with the same hiker.
If more than one hiker is encountered at the same instant, all of them count as separate encounters.
Any encounter at the exact instant that Herbert finishes his hike still counts as an encounter.
If Herbert were to have an encounter with a hiker and then change his speed to exactly match that hiker's speed and follow along, he would have infinitely many encounters! Of course, he must never do this.
Encounters do not change the hikers' behavior, and nothing happens when hikers encounter each other.
Herbert knows the starting position and speed of each hiker. What is the minimum number of encounters with hikers that he can possibly have?