Light as a feather, stiff as a board facts for kids

Light as a feather, stiff as a board is a game played by children at slumber parties. The phrase has also become established in popular culture as a reference to a levitation trick, and has been referred to in various media accounts. In performing magic this effect is known as abnormal lift.

Description

One participant lies flat on the floor, and then the others space themselves around him or her, each placing one or two fingertips underneath the participant's limbs. The person closest to the head commonly begins by saying, "She's looking ill," which is repeated several times, and followed by, "she's looking worse," which is also repeated several times. The general direction of the call-and-repeat describes how the prone person is looking worse and worse, followed by saying "she is dying," and, finally, "she is dead".

Variations of the spoken part of the game occur. In a common, modern version, the person being lifted is told a story about their death and asked to imagine it happening to them. This is intended to unsettle the participants, and to convince them that something may have changed making it easier to lift the person than before.

All versions of the game end with the phrase "light as a feather, stiff as a board" chanted by those standing around the "dead" player as they attempt to lift their companion's body using only their fingertips. Some versions omit the story entirely and only the "light as a feather..." chant is used. After these repetitions, the person being lifted is described by the group as having become lighter or even entirely weightless.

Another variation of the game takes place with one person seated in a chair. Four volunteers agree to stand around the sitter, two on the sitter's left side and the other two on their right. Each of the four places two fingers under each corner of the chair's seat and the four together will attempt to lift the chair and sitter, which generally fails. The volunteers will then perform some small ritual, usually involving rubbing their hands together or circling the chair in various direction (counter-clockwise, walking backwards, etc.) After this ritual, the volunteers hold their hands over the sitter's head to "transfer" energy into the sitter, which will presumably make them weightless. The lifters then retry lifting the sitter the same way as before. Also, it can be that the lifters lift the person sitting in the chair; doing the rest of the ritual as so but holding at the four main points of the body (Under the knees on each side and under the shoulders.)

Explanation of the trick

The key to the trick is timing: each of the lifters must apply the lifting force at the same moment. When this is done, the weight of the subject is divided equally between each lifter, requiring each person to contribute only 12–20 kilograms (26–44 lb) of lift, to raise a 50–80-kilogram (110–176 lb) person. This is about the same as each person lifting a heavy shopping bag.

If the trick is performed without synchronising the lift, it will fail: as participants attempt to lift at slightly different times, they are instead performing a series of lifts by smaller groups, resulting in a much heavier weight per person. This fact may be used as a deliberate form of misdirection from the person explaining the trick, first asking the group to "go ahead, try to lift" to show that it cannot be done, and then asking them to try again on the count of three, where it succeeds.

Some people who remember performing the trick as a child will have exaggerated their memory of the effect, recalling the performance as lifting the subject high into the air for some time, when in reality they would only have lifted them for a moment.