Reverse Polarity: Difference between revisions

A type of [[Applied Phlebotinum]], Reversing the Polarity is the be-all end-all technical solution for any problem. Usually only thought of at the very end of the show ("Captain... we could reverse the polarity of the positron toilet and send a stream of charged crap particles ''toward'' the Romulans, rather than ''away''..."). It always works. Always.

 

 

Reversing the polarity on a car is also possible -- some vintage cars, particularly British ones are positive-ground while negative-ground has been the standard worldwide since [[The Sixties]], so if you want to put a modern MP3-compatible stereo in your '59 Morris Minor a car polarity swap is a must.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'': This was how they got the drill-missile to unscrew itself out of the barrel of the [[Wave Motion Gun]].

* In ''[[Transformers Victory]]'', Braver invents a device that can detect Decepticon brainwaves. During the inevitable battle, he is able to drive them off by actually reversing the polarity.

'''Dewey''': We'll take your word for it, sir. }}

* [[Atomic Robo]]'s solution for sending the Vampires back the Vampire Dimension is to reverse polarity. Shockingly, the experiment that brought them into our world does not have a "reverse" option, causing Robo to declare that the feature is to be strict company policy from then on. Lampshade, thou art hung.

** Decepticon missiles. And that was right from the movie, not just the adaptation.

* ''[[Buck Rogers]]''. [[Ur Example|Did it way more than]] ''[[Star Trek]]'' ever did, too.

** No. They inverted their shield polarity, which caused the missiles to lose the lock and miss the ship.

* The 2007 ''[[Oceans Thirteen]]'' had [[Brad Pitt]] dismissing Don Cheadle's technobabble by saying, "Becomes magnetized, reverse polarization, I know."

** For reference, he reverses the polarity on his ''radio''. Yes, that's right, he detonates torpedoes by reversing the polarity of his radio. Then again, WWII-vintage missiles could be thwarted with electric shavers, so...

* In the 1952 British film ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044446/ The Sound Barrier]''. the hero solved the problem of controlling a supersonic airplane by reversing the flight controls. To increase lift, for example, he pushed the stick forward instead of back as would be expected. The movie does not state whether this also held true for the engine: would you apply more throttle if you wanted less forward thrust? In any case, Major General Chuck Yeager, the man who was actually the first to fly an airplane faster than sound, was asked about this and stated that any such method would result in the pilot's death (in reality, the problem of lack of control in the transonic range was solved in a straightforward manner by creating much larger control surfaces).

** Some of the later model Spitfires had problems with this in dives. They increased the size of the ailerons in order to bump the roll rate, but the super-thin elliptical wings weren't stiff enough to handle the increased force imparted by the larger ailerons at high speeds. Applying the ailerons in a dive would result in the ENTIRE WING twisting under the force, causing the plane to roll in the opposite direction that commanded (note that 'Wing Warping' was the original roll control method used by the Wright Brothers). Initially solved by 'clipping' the wing tips and later by stiffening the wings. Other situations can cause this effect, known as 'Control Reversal'.

** Control reversal is almost always caused by wing warping of one sort or another when it isn't just pilot error or a maintenance mistake (it's not uncommon for home-built aircraft to get a twist in the control cables during maintenance and have one of the controls backward when it's all put back together). When there is supersonic airflow over wings not designed for it, there can be shockwaves that cause momentary control reversals, but they are basically unpredictable and change vastly with very small speed adjustments, because they depend on precisely where and at what angle a shockwave is hitting a control surface.

* In ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', Frederick reads from his [[Doctor Frankenstein|grandfather's]] book ''[[Fictional Document|How I Did It]]'':

{{quote| "'...until, from the midst of this darkness, a sudden light broke in upon me. A light so brilliant and wondrous and yet so simple. Change the poles from plus to minus and from minus to plus. I alone succeeded in discovering the secret of bestowing life. Nay, even more... I myself became capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter!' ...[[This Is Sparta|IT - COULD - WORK]]!!!"}}

** Some fans justify it in that, being at the end of the journal, we don't hear all of it. Basicly what if one neck bolt was positive and the other negative, and the first experiment got them wrong? For the second one, you would reverse the poles and it would then work.

* The 1963 movie ''Son of [[Flubber]]'' features a rain machine that does not work until they reverse the polarity.

* In the 1996 TV movie ''Gulliver's Travels'' Gulliver reversed the big magnet in the flying island to counter the plot of the people on the ground to crash the island by using another big magnet that attracts the island.

* Self-inflicted in ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]'' when a henchman with a crude battery-powered pacemaker is unplugged by Joanna Pettet's character. He frantically reconnects himself and gets the leads wrong, running backward at high speed.

* ''[[Apollo 13]]'': Justified. Shortly before re-entry they needed "four more amps" to power up the Command Module. They used a circuit intended to provide power from the Command Module to the Lunar Module to do the opposite.

* Data literally uses the phrase "Reverse the Polarity" concerning the magnetic door in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]''. Course, reversing the polarity on a magnetically-controlled door ''would'' open it. Go figure.

* In ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', the Ghostbusters defeat Gozer by crossing the energy streams from their proton packs. This, we are informed, will "reverse the particle flow through the gate." Naturally it works.

* In ''[[Cars]] 2'', Holley says this while trying to escape a death trap in the Big Bentley clock tower. On one hand, they at least keep it grounded in reality: once reversed, the only effect is the clock's motor and gear system running in reverse. On the other hand, she does it by shocking the motor with a Taser...

* ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''. Commander Adams orders a subordinate to "Stand by to reverse polarity" during the initial landing on Altair 4.

 

 

== Literature ==

** 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).

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''Scourge the Heretic'', the jury-rigged device to keep a machine going "reversed the polarity of the neutron flow" (a clear [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Doctor Who]]'').

** Considering the amount of tropes invoked and subverted in the book and the fact that the above-mentioned machine simply ''didn't work'' due to the tampering, this can probably be considered deliberate.

* In the Star Trek Voyager novel Ragnarok, the aliens of the week are using shields that automatically reverse poliarty whenever something is shot at them. The crew figures out that they can shoot the shields and then reverse polarity so their next shot will ignore the shields.

 

* The ''[[CSI New York]]'' Season 1 finale had someone actually "reverse the polarity".

* In episode 17 of the ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' TV series, Kohran puzzles over how to make Iris' ''kohbu'' properly handle her vast spirit energies, and comes up with an idea that, among other things, reverses the flow of her spirit energy through the regulator crystal.

** In the episode "That Which Survives", Spock orders Scotty to reverse the polarity of a "magnetic probe". Scotty's incredulous, "reverse polarity?!" qualifies as the [[Trope Namer]].

** In the episode "Obsession", Spock once did this by "cross-circuiting to B". Same thing.

** Geordi could make the Enterprise do anything by "routing (some piece of [[Techno Babble]]) through the main deflector array".

** [[Creator's Pet|Wesley Crusher]] is famous for reversing the polarity on every damn thing.

** Memory Alpha records a total of at least five instances in which this order was given on the show. In three instances, it was helpful; in two, it was not.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' in which Carter's analogue on the parallel show "Wormhole X-treme!" attempts to solve all problems by reversing the polarity.

** 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".

* ''[[Space Cases]]'': Catalina is having some trouble with the concept from her textbook. "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow? What's that all about?" Aren't [[Shout-Out|shout outs]] fun?

* Paul Chuckle is always using this in ''[[Chucklevision]]''. At one point he reverses the polarity of a UV light (which helps plants grow) to shrink his brother Barry.

{{quote| '''Arthur Rollo:''' Yes, yes. I know what it's supposed to do. But, uh, how about the other one? The Minus-X?<br />

'''Lillian Stemmler:''' No problem. To get the Minus-X drug, I only have to reverse the chemical processes inherent in the Plus-X. }}

* 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" -- Flynn can't morph due to a bug in his morpher that has led to an energy buildup. While Dr. K is unable to work out a solution, Flynn realizes that he can discharge the energy by simply morphing with his activator chip in ''backwards''.

* 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 ''[[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?

 

== Music ==

* 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 themselves -- only for an emergency situation, which is [[Tempting Fate|highly unlikely, nigh impossible]] -- by putting their hands on their heads and twisting their torsos and heads to and fro. In Act II, of course, polarity needs to be reversed ("[[Straw Vulcan|But it's not logical]]!" "[[The McCoy|Damn your logic! I've got lives to save]]!") and the audience has to help.

** 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.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** 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.

== Radio ==

* Lampshaded nicely in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' BBC Radio drama ''The Ghosts of N-Space'', in which the Brigadier jokingly suggests that the (Third) Doctor "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", to which the Doctor replies that the Brig knows as well as he does that the phrase is meaningless.

 

 

2: Oh, that's your answer to everything! }}

* Done [http://exterminatusnow.comicgenesis.com/d/20100926.html here] in [[Exterminatus Now]], to shut down the Void. Complete with references to both [[Star Trek]], Ghostbusters, and a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade.]]

 

 

== Web Originals ==

* Yaeger has to do this to the Gravity Engine in ''[[The Mercury Men]]'' to put the moon back in its proper orbit.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* Reversing the polarity of energy sources was one of the many plot convenient things Penny's computer book could do on ''[[Inspector Gadget]]''.

** 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 pack -- the standard Ghostbuster weapon -- and try exacting some revenge. With the Ghostbusters busy elsewhere, it falls to the Ghostbusters' secretary Janine to corral the ghosts. She does this by using tools at hand and no formal technical training whatsoever to reverse a second proton pack's polarity so it will neutralize the ghost's weapon. Then, with a small twist of a screwdriver, she re-reverses the polarity and uses the pack to capture the disarmed ghosts.

** 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 the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Clean Slate", reversing the polarity on a memory-enhancement device causes it to erase Kim's memories.

** The device adapted to switch heroes and villains between good and evil is even called the "Reverse Polarizer".

* In ''[[The New Adventures of Superman]]'', reversing the polarity of an electric charge transferred the powers of the episode's villain (and some other guy) back to Superman... After they got them from him through an electric shock.

* This is the solution to many a kink in Jimmy's machines in ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'', [[Did Not Do the Research|whether it makes sense or not]].

* Shows up in the second ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' miniseries. Apparently, "reversing the polarity" of a pair of antennae just involves making the tips touch.

* In the very last episode of the original ''[[Transformers]]'' cartoon, "The Rebirth, Part 3", the heroes {{spoiler|derail Galvatron's plan and bring about a new Golden Age on Cybertron}} by reversing the polarity of Galvatron's rocket thruster.

'''Danny''': (makes muscles) With my strength?<br />

'''Sam''': No. That you knew what reverse polarity was. }}

* In ''[[Megas XLR]]'' due to some wire changes, a weapon Coop uses accidentally gives the enemy reflective shielding. Then when he teleports the stabilizer out of the enemy robot it "reverses the polarity" of the shield making the opponents weapons hit itself.

* ''[[South Park]]'' spoofs this (spoilered for [[Squick]], not actual plot spoilers): {{spoiler|Cartman tries making Butters gay by sucking on his dick. Kyle and Stan tell Cartman that it makes '''him''' gay, and that he has to have Butters suck his dick to reverse the gay polarity. [[Hilarity Ensues]].}}

** ''[[Hawkman]]'' episode "The Twenty Third Dimension". Hawkman's "quazer" is converted into a Dimension Ray by reversing its polarity.

** ''[[The Atom]]'' episode "The House of Doom''. The Atom reverses the polarity of a miniature nuclear battery to turn it into a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]].

** This is also how Donatello Deus Ex Machina's just about every other episode once all of the hilarity and wacky hijinks have been taken care of.

* ''[[The Amazing Spiez]]''. In "Operation The 50 Ft. Hacker" a device called the Super Soaker Supersizer has its polarity reversed to return Megan and Davey to normal size.

{{quote| '''Alien 1''' "That would be very complex..." <br />

'''Alien 2''' "Nah, just switch the wires in the bottom and use it again." }}

* Subverted in the Founding Zombies episode of ''[[Johnny Test]]''. When Johnny uses a ray gun to bring the town's Founding Fathers back to life, [[Always Identical Twins|Susan (or Mary)]] attempt to stop them by "reversing the polarity" of the gun. However, because they weren't completely alive, it did nothing. Johnny then had them "reverse the reverse polarity thing" to bring back their mothers and "save" the day.

* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' uses this as the Autobots' method of blowing up Megatron's space bridge.

* ''[[The Herculoids]]'' episode "Revenge of the Pirates". Zok does it with his laser [[Eye Beams]] to neutralize a force field.

 

* Electrolytic coating. If the given polarity makes a metal condense on the electrode, the reversed current will dissolve it back.

* Vascular plants get rid of air bubbles in the xylem by reversing the flow of water during the night.

 

{{reflist}}