Reverse Polarity: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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Of course, you can "reverse the polarity" in real life — just put the battery in the other way round. Doesn't quite have the same effect, though. Most simple powered toy vehicles, electric toothbrushes and other devices that rely on a spinning electric motor will simply ''run backwards'' while more complex electronics with a DC power supply may even break or fry the device in question. This is why most "complex" devices nowadays are equipped with diodes, which keep the current from flowing backwards if the polarity is reversed, preventing damage to the main circuitry. Still, [[Don't Try This At Home]], kids!
Reversing the polarity on a car is also
Besides, it makes the characters in question look a lot less like brilliant scientists when they are (basically) sighing and asking the technician, "Did you plug it in the wrong way again? I mean, seriously. Red cable is positive. How hard can it possibly be to remember?"
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'''Molly:''' Yeah, right. Even '''I''' know he's tricking, and I dropped out of the '''fourth grade'''. }}
** Ironically, it might not be pretty... but really only for the remote. This is one of those things you don't try at home.
* A [[Carl Barks]] comic book in the [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe]] is the earliest recorded use of
{{quote|'''Engineer''': "I have to de-amp the resistor diodes to reverse the polarity of the potentiometers -- it's simple when you know how!"
'''Dewey''': We'll take your word for it, sir. }}
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== Literature ==
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s [[Yellow Peril]] novel ''[[Sixth Column (novel)|Sixth Column]]'' features two kinds of
* Subverted in one of the fiction-chapters of ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]''. After the Roundworld is transformed into a snowball (Ice Age), the Dean proposes (after four glasses of sherry) to "get [[Magitek|Hex]] to reverse the [[Magi Babble|thaumic flow]] in the cthonic matrix of the optimized bi-direction [[Arc Number|octagonate]]" to fix it. The Archchancellor replies that he would prefer a non-gibberish opinion.
** Also in ''Discworld'', there's a spell called the "Rite of Ashk Ente" which summons Death to you, in order to partake in his wisdom. Alberto Malich thought that if the spell makes Death go to you, then performing it ''backwards'' would make Death go ''away''. However, he soon finds out that there is another way to consider the spell backwards: sending you directly to Death (which, oddly enough, worked out pretty well for him).
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** She also did actually get her homemade [[Applied Phlebotinum|naqadah]] reactor working by reversing the polarity of a [[Unobtanium|trinium]] plate in ''Learning Curve''. "Reversing the polarity" sounded more professional than "aw shit I put it in backwards".
** And in "200", during a [[Star Trek]] parody, Mitchell as [[The Captain]] asks Carter to reverse the polarity in an overly dramatic manner.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', as mentioned above. Even LESS justified as it is often neutron flow that is
{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' Really shouldn't take that long to reverse the polarity. Must be out of practice.}}
** ''Doctor Who'' also provides a rare example of polarity reversal ''not'' working. When Nyssa and Tegan are rapidly aged every time the Doctor tried to take off the ship in ''Mawdryn Undead'' due to... something or other, the Fifth Doctor attempts to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. This only causes them to de-age into children. [[MST3K Mantra|Try not to think about it.]]
*** The exact same thing happened to the Fourth Doctor, only it was a chicken turning into an egg, and it wasn't a
*** Parodied again in the new-series episode "The Almost People". An {{spoiler|exact duplicate of the Eleventh Doctor, called a 'ganger'}} is created. As he tries to process the Doctor's multiple regenerations, he goes a little weird; one point he says the "neutron flow" variety, only a few lines later to say, using Four's voice; "Would you like a [[Trademark Favourite Food|jellybaby]]?" and then, in Eleven's voice, ''"Reverse the jellybaby of the neutron flow!"''
** The Doctor's sonic screwdriver once had its polarity reversed to turn it into an electromagnet and draw back a heavy bolt.
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** In "The Moonglow Affair", Solo and Kuryakin are poisoned with deadly radiation from a THRUSH ray gun. To cure them, [[Poorly-Disguised Pilot|substitute agent]] [[The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.|April Dancer]] must obtain the ray gun so that UNCLE scientists can reverse the polarity and shoot our heroes with it again.
* Reversing the polarity of the [[Lexx]]'s main drive causes an EMP of sufficient power to fry any circuits on or near the ship.
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'': "Ranger Blue"
** In the ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' episode "Opposites Attract", the [[Robeast|magnet-themed]] ''monster'' did this trick to sabotage the Rangers' weapons. He could also cause a "polarity switch" for individual people and Angel Grove as a whole. What this actually meant apparently involved a [[Screen Shake]] and some storm effects.
* Spoofed in ''[[Kyle XY]]'', when Josh tells a drunken Kyle to sober up by "reversing the polarity of his liver". Kyle goes offscreen, vomits, and comes back sober, saying that he took Josh's advice. It's hard to say whether he was joking or not.
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* Reversed polarity is apparently how the anomaly-locking device on ''[[Primeval]]'' works.
* In ''[[Smallville]]'', a villain with magnetic powers pushes a car at Clark Kent. Clark catches the car, then uses a live wire to electrify it. Somehow, this causes the villain's "repel" to change to "attract", and he's pulled into the car and defeated.
* In the 1960's ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' episode "Better Luck Next Time", Batman reverses the polarity on his belt communicator in order to create an ultrasonic signal to drive away a tiger. It was shown on March
* In ''[[Emergency]]'', there is a factory worker with his arm caught in a feeding hopper of a machine and Dr. Brackett is rushing over to have it amputated to save his life. However while he is en route, the paramedics come up with a better idea: they work with the factory's engineers and rewire the machine to make the hopper work in reverse to free the worker instead. Just as Dr. Brackett arrives, the modification is finished and they are able to free him instantly.
* In ''[[Sliders]]'' Season 2, Episode 3: Gillian of the Spirts, Quinn (via a spirit medium, the titular Gillian) instructs Arturo how to fix the timer by reversing the polarity. It might have been brought up other times in the show, I don't know, who cares?
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== Music ==
* A popular filk song, "The USS Make Shit Up" by [[Voltaire (musician)|Voltaire]], about the ''[[Star Trek]]'' series contains a similar line: "''Bounce the graviton particle beam / Off the main deflector dish / That's the way we do things, lad / We're making shit up as we wish...''"
* A musical example is in Bob Carlton's -- sorry, [[William Shakespeare]]'s -- ''Return to the [[Forbidden Planet]]''. Before the show starts, the 'crew' or ensemble members walk out and instruct the audience in standard safety procedures for their flight (air masks will deploy from ceiling, use of cell phones will cause the ship to explode, etc.) and end with teaching the audience how to Reverse Polarity
** As an added bonus, at the end of the show, as the crew and captain prepare to launch back to Earth (singing ''Born to Be Wild'', of course), crew members announce that all is well by calling "Iambics functioning, Pentameters locked in, Hyperboles all off the scale!" and "R.S.C. jettisoned", [[In-Joke|in jokes]] all relating to Shakespeare's text, a conceit of language, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, respectively.
** Many of the posters (and T-shirts) for the show consist of a warning sign saying "''WARNING: Do not reverse polarity!''", and the playbill warns of the dangers of polarity reversal in space. Note that it is never actually specified ''what'' the polarity is reversed on, just that polarity in general is reversed - which makes the joke even more tongue-in-cheek...
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== Tabletop Games ==
* According to the ''[[Star Trek]]'' d6 RPG sourcebooks, reversing the polarity in different ways on the main deflector array can create a low power phaser, force someone out of warp, and allow you to [[New Powers as the Plot Demands|basically do ANYTHING you could think of]]. The Main Deflector Array; [[Swiss Army Weapon]] of the Federation. In fact players are encouraged to come up with [[Techno Babble]] explanations for whatever it is they are trying to do.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' made a card for "Reverse Polarity"
** The [[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]] has a similar card: ''Rainbow Life''.
* ''[[Paranoia]]'' adventure "'The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues''. The Maxwell-Effect Moleculokinesic Field Device is basically a Pyrokinesis gun (e.g. it acts like a flamethrower). 50% of the time it fires at reverse polarity and freezes the target.
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* ''[[Space Quest]]'' 5 has you "reverse the phase polarity of the interface grid" multiple times throughout the game.
* Referenced in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. One of the final bosses uses an attack named 'R. Polarity' to reverse the characters.
* The video game adaptation of the ''[[Death Gate]]'' novels uses [[Magi Babble]] instead of [[Techno Babble]], but the principle remains the same. There's no point to casting a spell that sets you on
* [[Star Trek Online]] actually has a skill called "Reverse Shield Polarity" that causes energy weapons to increase the shields instead of damaging them.
* At the end of ''[[Ratchet and Clank]] 2'', {{spoiler|Angela's anti-Protopet weapon turns the Protopet into a giant monster. When she attempts to figure out what went wrong, Clank points out that the battery is in backwards.}}
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** One episode had James himself perform probably the most ludicrous variation ever: In the beginning of the episode, James berates IQ for not fixing his digital watch which for some reason has started counting ''backwards''. Later, James is locked in a room with a doomsday device set to go off. What does he do? He uses some ''pieces of wire'' to ''connect the watch to the device's timer'' and lo and behold, the watch starts working normally ''and the timer starts counting backwards''.
* It also happened in ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' all the time, and probably plenty of other cartoons where people tinker with electronics.
** A particularly memorable from ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' occurs when some ghosts get their hands on a proton
** In another episode where the Ghostbusters are trapped in an old movie studio and about to be blasted with their own packs, Ray reverses the PKE Meter to ''send'' signals to ghosts. It causes ghosts of the studio's hero characters to appear and save the day.
** In an episode of ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters]]'', the team was faced with a ghost that multiplied whenever the proton packs were used against it. They overcame this by [[Did Not Do the Research|converting them into]] ''[[Did Not Do the Research|electron]]'' [[Did Not Do the Research|packs]].
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* When a phone exchange fails to hang up on a land line, what do you do? Polarity Reversal!
* A certain model of text message pager made by Motorola and [http://content.arch.com/userguides/guides/UnicationP900UserGuide.pdf Unication] can be cleared from certain faults by removing and re-inserting the single AA battery in reverse to the normal installation for about 15 seconds, then removing it and installing it normally again.
* [[Antimatter]] is normal matter with
** Every particle also spins into the opposite direction as their normal counterpart. Combining both gets you a real-life [[Yin-Yang Bomb]].
* Technical support sometimes ask people to reverse the wire. Of course, this is just a subtle way of making sure the customer has the danged thing actually plugged in.
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** This can also serve as a simple way of converting mono to stereo. Take a mono sound file, put your sound editor into stereo mode, then invert one of the channels. Quick surround sound. Mind you, it only works well with headphones, and if the resulting file is converted to mono again, silence will result.
*** Which is how noise canceling works. Two waves of 180 degrees will cancel each other out. Of course, this only works when the noise is more or less predictable.
* Live sound reinforcement mixing consoles have a "phase" switch on every input which is really just a
* Converting a voltage follower with gain into a comparator with hysteresis is as simple as reversing the polarity of the amplifier.
* In classical Chinese thought, if the Yellow River runs clear when it should be muddy, or muddy when it should be clear or anything that should be Yin is Yang (or vice versa), it is considered an omen that the ruling dynasty has lost the [[wikipedia:Mandate of Heaven|Mandate of Heaven]]. Reversing the polarity, in other words, is an omen of DOOOM!
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