Can you knock someone over with a feather?

—used to say that one was extremely surprised or astonished when he or she found out about something When they told me I had won, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Would a brick or feather fall faster?

You may wonder, then, why feathers float gently in the breeze instead of falling to the ground quickly, like a brick does. Well, it’s because the air offers much greater resistance to the falling motion of the feather than it does to the brick.

How fast does a feather fall?

On Earth, yes. Feathers have a huge amount of air resistance for their mass. Even assuming no upward winds, it’s going to max out its falling speed at about a single mile per hour. Meanwhile, the coin is going to hit terminal velocity at about 28 mph.

What figure of speech is you could have knocked me over with a feather?

To shock, confuse, or astonish someone to a point of complete bewilderment; throw someone for a loop. More often phrased as “you could have knocked me over with a feather,” expressing great bewilderment or surprise. It really knocked me over with a feather to hear that my ex-wife had already remarried.

Where did the phrase knock me over with a feather come from?

2 Answers. According to the Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, it dates the idiom back to 1796. I came to a group of shabby houses upon a hill.

Would a feather hit the ground first?

On Earth we have plenty of air to breathe. Because the Apollo crew were essentially in a vacuum, there was no air resistance and the feather fell at the same rate as the hammer. This is exactly what Galileo had concluded hundreds of years before: all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass.

Why does feather fall slower?

Well, it’s because the air offers much greater resistance to the falling motion of the feather than it does to the brick. The air is actually an upward force of friction, acting against gravity and slowing down the rate at which the feather falls. Air resistance causes the feather to fall more slowly.

Which falls faster a hammer or a feather?

In an environment with air, the hammer will fall more quickly. The feather will have a greater amount of aerodynamic resistance on it preventing it from falling, proportional to its mass, than the hammer will. That said… in a vacuum and with no other source of friction, the two objects should fall at the same speed.

Which will hit the ground first?

In other words, if two objects are the same size but one is heavier, the heavier one has greater density than the lighter object. Therefore, when both objects are dropped from the same height and at the same time, the heavier object should hit the ground before the lighter one.

What does the phrase knocked us down with a feather mean?

knock someone over (with a feather) Fig. to leave someone stunned or surprised by something extraordinary.

What kind of figure of speech is you could have knocked me over with a feather?

What will fall faster a hammer or a feather?