View source for Up to Eleven

==  Real Life  ==
* "Up to eleven" was officially accepted by Webster's Dictionary.
* A common propaganda poster in Soviet Russia displayed a man in workman's dress turning a random machine's production speed to a red-bold "11".
* Skyscrapers were often this, like the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building were basically a race to see which would end up taller.
** Actually it was the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street, although the Empire State Building followed by less than a year, and not only beat it, but smashed it (the Empire State's ''top floor'' was 50 m above the tip of Chrysler's ''spire'', Empire's Spire was another 70m above that).
** More recently, the Burj Dubai (now named the Burj Khalifa) averted this. Rather than going 'up to eleven' to top the tallest building before it, the new tower went straight up to twenty. ''It's half a freaking mile high''.
*** And even more recently, they've started the construction of yet another skyscraper higher than Burj Khalifa in the same city. Top THAT.
* When Huey Long was governor of Louisiana, he ordered that the LSU swimming pool be 53 meters long, instead of the standard 50. It served no functional purpose and complicated swim races since they ended short of the wall, but hey, longest pool.
** Huey Long also had built the Louisiana State Capitol, which still stands as the tallest state capitol in the country and the tallest building in Baton Rouge. Local historians state that the Nebraska state capitol, which was being erected concurrently, was going to exceed the planned height of the Louisiana construction. Governor Long responded by increasing the height of his capitol to remain the tallest.
* Amps made by Fender go up to twelve, and still sound clean. Then we have Marshall who decided to one up it by giving it more watts, more speakers, more preamplification for that hard rock sound, and then later going to twenty. Then Mesa Boogie, inspired by Marshall, makes it go even further, creating one of the loudest metal amps. Soldano amps do go up to eleven because of this.
** Averted by Soldano's daughter company Jet City—the knobs only go to nine, but they have just as much distortion and volume as the up-to-eleven models.
* A lot of the [[Ermine Cape Effect]] is due to this, where royalty would do their best to show the most elaborate [[Bling of War|outfits]] and [[Pimped-Out Dress|dresses]] they could get tailored, especially in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
* One particular king commonly ate his dinners either plated in gold, sprinkled with ground-up pearls, or soaked in expensive perfume. However, the source is ''Ripley's Believe It or Not'', so this idea is probably an exaggeration or taken out of context, at best.
** A far more reliable source (a grade X chemistry school book from the 1970s) stated that Napoleon III, French emperor in the 19th century, used aluminium plates for himself and the empress at official banquets, this metal being the most expensive available in his era.
* On that note, the Age of Imperialism was around those centuries, and all about getting the most colonies.
* How many times have you heard a supervisor or a coach demand a "110% effort"?
* The economic theory of [[wikipedia:Conspicuous consumption|Conspicuous Consumption]], which basically says that people buy useless luxury items like diamond-encrusted dog collars to show off their wealth, which prompts others to find even more extravagant ways of showing off, et cetera.
** Best exemplified by the infamous iPhone application "I Am Rich", which was an application which cost $999.99 (the maximum possible at the iPhone store) and did nothing useful besides showing that its owner is rich.  {{spoiler|Also, it had a typo.}}
* The FreeBSD [[UNIX]] based operating system had some problems switching from the 4.x to the 5.x version, forcing them to release a 4.10 and 4.11 "production" versions. They lampshaded it releasing promo material with "4.11, ours goes to eleven" on it.
* Overclocking computers with the help of liquid nitrogen. ''Liquid motherfucking nitrogen''.
** Then someone did it with [http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/overclocked_amd_phenom_ii_hits_65ghz_with_liquid_nitrogenhelium_cooling liquid helium]. For people who would do such a thing, the achievement is an end itself and there's apparently no such thing as "too much". It's all about the [[Rule of Cool]], not the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Rule Of Cooling]].
* The Big Ten college sports conference invited an eleventh member (Penn State) to join in 1990, kept their name as the Big Ten, and added an 11 buried in their [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Big_Ten_Conference_Logo.svg/500px-Big_Ten_Conference_Logo.svg.png logo], which they used until 2010.
** Ironically, they had only formally adopted the name Big Ten in 1987....
** The Atlantic 10 sees your eleven and raises you 14. Given its members in Missouri and Ohio, the name appears to have become an [[Artifact Title]].
** Quite a few of the major conferences have been wanting to expand to ''sixteen'' teams since forever, and now it looks like a definite possibility. The Big East will have seventeen starting next season. And the new entry is from [[Everything Is Big in Texas|Texas]].
* The Badwater Ultramarathon: (from ''Sports Illustrated'') Think of [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Badwater]] as [[The Spartan Way|five consecutive marathons, only they're uphill]] (from 280&nbsp;ft. below sea-level and 8,360&nbsp;ft. above), held inside a blast furnace (the temperature hovers above 115 degrees—at night) and capable of frying runners' brains [[This Is Your Index On Drugs|like a fistful of peyote]] (hallucinations caused by [[The Insomniac|sleep deprivation]] are [[Crazy Awesome|part of the event's charm]]).
** The featured runner, Arthur Webb, has run the thing 12 times and has finished around 48 hours (with a record 36 hours being fourth place) each time, [[Nausea Fuel|rips his big toenails out]] so they won't crack as his feet swell in the 130 degree daytime heat, and once lost consciousness... and his pulse (he got better). Oh, and '''''he's 67 years old.'''''
* In a West Indies vs Australia [[Cricket Rules]] match from the early 90s, specialist bowlers Mike Whitney and Bruce Reid (both infamously bad batsmen) were in the Australian side. Whitney came to bat at number 10 (second-last), and after he'd swung wildly at a few deliveries, West Indian commentator Michael Holding (who'd never seen either of them play before) said "can you believe this guy's at number 10?" Ian Chappell replied, "Just you wait. There's someone worse to come."
* First round of Wimbledon 2010: John Isner versus Nicholas Mahut. They go into a fifth set. Because tie-breakers aren't used in the final set at Wimbledon, the final score of the fifth set was''70-68''. That's not points; that's ''games''. They were at the game so long it had to be suspended and continued the next day - and then suspended ''again''. It was finally finished two days after it began. Isner, still affected by the length of that match, lost in the second round.
* The Space Shuttle Main Engine goes [[wikipedia:SSME#SSME thrust specifications|up to 109%]]
* Fun fact: The volume on the [http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_world_service BBC iPlayer] goes up to 11.
** However Sky's goes up to 12. "So there!" (R. Murdoch)
* VLC media player's volume percentage goes up to 200% in the menu bar then goes on to 400% if you use the scroll wheel over the main window. This isn't just cosmetic, either: The default 100% setting is at the same level as other software, and cranking it higher will manipulate the waveform, [[Loudness War|clipping and even brickwalling it]] as needed.
** This is probably for files that were transferred from the (usually non-digital) source at less than full volume—somewhat common for bootleg media ripped from VHS tapes and the like, which also tends to use the weird formats only VLC and a few other obscure players can read. Also handy if your laptop's speakers just aren't very motivated and you can't hear the movie you are trying to watch without giving the audio a kick in the pants.
* This is the entire point of Guinness Records.
** The race for the fastest 100 meter dash in particular was stuck on trying to go ''below'' ten seconds for quite some time...and then Usain Bolt broke ''his own'' record by the largest margin to date, ''and'' he was so ahead of the rest of the pack that he slowed down a bit to show off.
* The Russian "Tsar" projects: [[wikipedia:Tsar Bell|Tsar Bell]], the world's largest bell; [[wikipedia:Tsar Cannon|Tsar Cannon]], the world's largest howitzer; and the more recent [[wikipedia:Tsar Tank|Tsar Tank]] and [[wikipedia:Tsar Bomba|Tsar Bomb]].
* US Navy slang includes the term "All ahead Bendix." The ship's speed is controlled by a device which was often made by the Bendix company. Their logo was just beyond the maximum setting, so it appeared that "Bendix" was an option for higher speed.
* The [[Cool Car|Bugatti Veyron's]] power gauge stops neatly at [http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2006/2006-Bugatti-Veyron-Targa-Florio-Gauges-1600x1200.jpg 1001]. Actually it tops at about 1200&nbsp;hp, but the constructors thought 1001 just looked cooler.
** 1001 metric hp (PS) would make around 987&nbsp;hp. To keep the power rating at the advertised "over 1001 hp" in both systems of measures, metric and Imperial, Veyron engines make around 1020-1040&nbsp;hp.
** While not quite as fast as the Veyron, the HTT Plethore LC-1300 "Canadian Supercar" has a 1,300 horse power engine and is designed as a 3-seater with the driver's seat and steering column in the centre like a Formula 1 car, and two passengers to the rear flanks of the driver.
* [http://www.brewdog.com/index.php Brew Dog] seem to be brewing the world's strongest beer: [http://www.brewdog.com/sink_the_bismark.php Sink the Bismarck]{{broken link}}. At a alcohol level of 41% they have REALLY cranked beer up to eleven. It is even drinkable. But the company wisely include a bottle stopper with each sale so that you won't drink a whole beer as strong as whisky in one sitting.
** [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66S3SR20100729 And 't Koelschip] went into overdrive outdoing [[Brew Dog]] with the Start the Future, at a massive 60% ABV.
* One of the Tv Tropes forums discusses this in terms of bodybuilding, noting how contestants went from being strongmen who happened to have highly defined muscles (and actually looked pretty good) to freakishly huge guys more obsessed with adding mass than being healthy.
** Compare [http://scooby1961.blogspot.com/2011/09/does-phil-heath-use-steroids.html the 2011 Mr. Olympia winner with a winner before steroids were available.]
* Appropriately, at the [[IMDb]] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/ page] for ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'', the ''rating'' is displayed as <number>/11.
** [http://dvd.ign.com/articles/037/037306p1.html IGN] also gave the movie 11 out of 10.
* If you thought the Snuggy was bad, behold "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S2p7AiNX9g Forever Lazy]".
* Advanced Micro Devices [http://blogs.amd.com/work/2011/01/31/bulldozer-goes-to-11/ used the trope] OUTRIGHT in their blog, litterally citing the ''Spinal Tap'' scene to explain what the Turbo CORE technology does in the Bulldozer processor architecture. The processor will often try to overclock all its cores by as much as 500&nbsp;MHz depending on the workload. If less than all the cores are being used, say in a single or dual-threaded program, it will underclock the unused cores and overclock the used ones even MORE. Depending on the program and conditions, it gives you 4.0&nbsp;GHz OUT OF THE BOX.
* Energy drinks, in both can size and caffeine content. Originally an 8.3 oz. can of Red Bull was a lot. Then came other energy drinks that made Red Bull look like tea, and larger can sizes. 16 ounces is pretty much the standard, and there are also 24 and ''32'' ounce cans, as well as ''boxes''.
** Powerthirst (from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs this fake commercial]), the most EXTREME energy drink. It actually belongs in this section now, because it's [https://www.powerthirst.ca/ REAL.]
* Finnish Navy corvettes "Turunmaa" and "Karjala" used Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbines (yup, the same as in Concorde), and they were equipped with special restrictors equipped with security seals. The normal maximum speed of those corvettes was 38 kn, but they logged regularly 43 kn speeds. But when breaking the security seals and overriding the restrictors, the vessels could achieve 50 kn speeds - although the engines would not stand such stress for a long time.
* War Emergency Power on Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine. Used on P-47 Thunderbolt, F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair. The WEP device consisted of water-methanol injection on the already turbocharged engine. When breaking the security seals and applying WEP, the pilot could stress some 20% more power momentarily out of the engine than usually.
** A similar German device was HaHa-Gerät, which injected nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the engine, supplying extra oxygen and making the engine run hotter.
* Rubik's Cubes. Thought the 3x3x3 cube was hard? There are cubes up to 7x7x7 commercially available, and a method has been patented that can take the cube's size literally up to eleven. When it comes to computer-simulated cubes, you can just [[Serial Escalation|go infinitely higher]]: How about a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnbPhwajuqg&feature=related 20x20x20] or a ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Vhs0Xe02k 1000x1000x1000]'' cube? There are also ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqMb-edXlc 4-dimensional cubes]'' or even '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gGxSEm2i0&feature=related 5D cubes]'''.
** 5D is so last millenium, they're up to [http://astr73.narod.ru/MC7D/MC7D.html 7D] now, 5^7 to be precise.
* In a recent [http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/2007/04/postcards-showing-year-2000-circa-1900.html interview] about ''[[BioShock Infinite]]'', the journalist inquired jokingly, "So at what point in development did it become clear that you needed to be flinging horses at the player character?" Ken Levine responded that, "...in video games, everything always has to be amped up to eleven..." and that they needed to show to the player that the antagonist shown was badass.
* The TORRO scale for tornadoes goes up to eleven, with the highest ranking T11 tornadoes having wind speeds in excess of 300&nbsp;mph. Because of its origins as a relationship between the Beaufort scale and Mach speeds, the Fujita Tornado scale goes up to [[Oh Crap|twelve]], where a theoretical F12 ranking would have wind speeds that break the sound barrier. Fortunately for us, tornadoes only go up to F5 (at least on this planet.)
* The [[BBC]] embeded video players actually go up to eleven on the volume adjustment.
* According to James May, in the final episode of ''[[Top Gear]]'' series 16, the original moon buggy was designed to have a top speed of 8&nbsp;mph, but the astronauts managed to push it up to 11&nbsp;mph.
* Footballer [[Small Name, Big Ego|Nicklas]] [[English Premier League|Bendtner's]] confidence was measured to a ten on a scale that goes to nine.
* [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80457645/ Body suits that make you look like a sex doll]. Gets a creep out rating of 11.
* For nurses, the questions on the NCLEX examination can feel like this if you've previously passed the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) exam.
* Telescope advances are usually more a case of [[Bigger Is Better]], advancing in leaps and bounds, but the Gran Telescope Canarias, the world's largest and built in 2009, has a main mirror a little over 34 feet across. The previous record holder, the Keck telescope, has a 33 feet wide main mirror. You could park a bus on the main mirrors of any of them (and cause a gazillion dollars in damage doing so!)
* [http://longnow.org/clock/ The Clock Of The Long Now] is a mechanical clock designed to run continuously for the next 10,000, that's ''ten THOUSAND'', years. That is the entire length of human civilization, which is actually their benchmark. They want to build lots of them, and scatter them all over the earth.
* NASCAR racecars, the quintessential "ten" of automotive racing in the USA, rates their cars in the 8-900&nbsp;hp range. The brand new Shelby Mustang's track version takes the horsepower Up to Eleven...hundred.

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