History Main / TimTaylorTechnology

&&* ''TheRedGreenShow'' Handyman Corner segments were any indication.

* ''TheRedGreenShow'' Handyman Corner segments were any indication.

%%* ''TheRedGreenShow'' Handyman Corner segments were any indication.

* Similar to the ''Samuel B. Robberts'' example above, we has a civillian example of Tim Tayloring for an emergancy: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rms_carpathia RMS Carpathia]] had a registered top speed of only 14 knots (16 mph). When he got the ''Titanic's'' distress signal, what does Captain Rostron do? Cut off the heat to the A/C and hot water taps and redirect it all to the engines for ''MORE POWER!'' Doing so scored the 500+ foot long liner a speedy (for her) 17.5 knots (20.1 mph). ARR ARR ARR!

** [[http://ziggystarfox.tumblr.com/post/55068068578/endlessknight-thats-it-thats-the-show And here's a Tumblr post]] humorously summing up the whole thing in one picture.

* When The TroubleMakers came into Team Umizoomi, you know the drill: MORE POWER!

* ''Series/HomeImprovement'', [[TropeNamers naturally]]. One of Tim Taylor's most notable acts was when he put so much fuel into a barbecue grill that it achieved geosynchronous orbit. In general, his solution to any problem is to put more power in it. Whereas science fiction puts more power into laser cannons and shields, Tim Taylor is the king of MundaneUtility for power levels normally reserved for NASA.
** This was {{Lampshaded}} in at least one case. Tim wanted to buy a security system for his home, but most uncharacteristically, he just wanted a simple system. As soon as he told his friends at the hardware shop he was getting a security system, they immediately assumed he'd go his normal route and went nuts thinking up insane measures to install. One of them announced proudly that Tim's home was going to be the first one with "[[NuclearOption first-strike capabilities]]." When he got the system home, he told his wife Jill that it was just a basic system with the minimal options. She immediately told him to go back and get a top-of-the-line system; nothing was too great, in this case.

[[caption-width-right:324: ''"AUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEE?"'']]

[[quoteright:324:[[HomeImprovement http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/home-improvement-tim-taylor_more_power_6212.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:324:Grunt]]

* LazyTown has the "evil dude" with disguises which are a result of Tim Taylor technology.
** Later on in The New LazyTown Adventures, after Bill Thompson proved to the "evil dude" that he IS the greatest master of disguise, he later uses a machine that sends out alternate personalities of himself, again a result of Tim Taylor technology.

* [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/991204.html This]] strip of ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics''.

* Averted in the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', where the eponymous machine's performance was improved with a new friction-reduction system instead of increasing the power output.
** Played straight in ''GundamSEED'', where the [[MidseasonUpgrade Freedom and Justice]] are able to outperform the earlier Gundams primarily because of their stronger (nuclear) power source.
*** Its not exactly straight, the Freedom and Justice are designed to have much greater fire power than any other suit at the time. The big difference in power supply is that all of the other suits have to be charged up before a fight at a base or on a transport. The Freedom and Justice having nuclear power could outlast anything else, and be completely independent.
** ''{{Gundam 00}}'s'' Trans-Am system seems to show that Gundams operate on this principle: need to make a gun more powerful? More GN Particles! Need to move faster? More GN particles! Need to [[spoiler:read people's minds]]? MORE GN PARTICLES!
*** [[Film/Gundam00AwakeningOfTheTrailblazer Need to]] [[spoiler:teleport to a distant alien planet]]? '''''MORE GN PARTICLES!!'''''

* Of course, seeing as how Spiral Energy is something of an {{Expy}} of Getter Rays, that means that ''GetterRobo'' has been doing this for approximately three decades now. Each of the small, one-man Getter Machines has a Getter Energy reactor. Whenever they [[CombiningMecha combine]] into the titular HumongousMecha, they're able to do just about anything because they have... MORE POWER!
** Taken to its logical conclusion with the Getter Emperor, an out-of-control planet consuming monstrosity which is variously depicted as being the size of the earth, the size of Jupiter, and once an entire galaxy. Then it punched God in the face, who promptly exploded.

* The 2005 ''Film/FantasticFour'' movie put this trope in center stage with Reed's cosmic storm simulation device for reversing their mutations. At the highest power he had available, it could do nothing but recreate or worsen their mutations. But if it had ''more power''...
** [[spoiler:And once it did have enough power it worked, but the character who was cured went back in and mutated again so he could face the Big Bad.]]

* Sark yells for more power in ''{{Tron}}'' when he is trying to break down the door to the I/O Tower. Somewhat justified as this takes place in the computer world, and the programs can ''drink'' energy.
** Well that just depends on if he meant more ELECTRICAL power, or more PROCESSING power, which considering what the Master Control Program says near the end of the movie, when Sark is taken down by Tron himself;

*** The reactors used on AMERICAN nuclear vessels (of all types) are rated to be completely safe when operated up to 100% (which in this context means nothing from inside the reactor is going to cause a breach). The reactors used on Soviet vessels were not nearly so safe. One problem is that they weren't nearly as well sealed, and could leak even under normal operating conditions. Sailors in the Red Navy were rightly afraid of their reactors, which US sailors never needed to be.
*** Nuclear subs run on electric motor drive. Nuff said. MOAR power = MOAR rpm. As to reactor output safety margins, the indicated or proscribed figures are rather lower than theoretical maximum tolerances, for some pretty obvious reasons.
*** No they don't. At least not the Russian an American ones. They use the steam produced in cooling the reactor to drive a steam turbine connected directly to the propeller shaft. More power means ,more steam which means more rpm for the steam turbine. The only nuclear subs that interpose an electric drive between the steam turbine and the propeller shaft are the French and Chinese submarines.
*** The book presents an alternate problem with trying to run the reactor at higher than safety tolerances: the submarine replaced with Tupolev's in the movie suffered a reactor meltdown of the sort that involved the reactor pile ''melting its way out of the submarine''.
** Since Ramius taught Tupolev, it's no surprise he does the same in the final sub duel:

* Subverted in ''{{Unstoppable}}''. Gunning the locomotive full throttle in the opposite direction after it's been hooked up to the speeding train would only cause it to lose its grip on the tracks as the main train pulls it along. Therefore, Frank and Will alternate their locomotive's power between directions to slow the train down more effectively.

* ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture Back To The Future Part III]]'': Doc's solution to getting the steam engine to reach 88 mph is some pyrotechnically-treated wood that brutally overclocks the engine. You can probably guess [[ExplosiveOverclocking how it ends]].
** Since they deliberately ran the engine off the end on an un-finished bridge they knew the overclocking wasn't going to be the worst problem.
** Ultimately RuleOfDrama, considering the speeds needed to get the time machine up to speed were well within the normal performance capabilities of locomotives at the time. Part of the planning stage was confirming this with the engineer.
*** While engines that would run that fast existed, they had to make sure that the engine they had to work with could do so. The nature and condition of the track is also critical for what speed a train can safely operate at, and there wouldn't have been any point in getting a 100 mph locomotive (at a premium price) for a line that could only be operated safely at, say, 50 mph.
** The engineer mentions that they'd need to run with a very high boiler pressure. Since Doc can't really hang around on the locomotive to stoke the fire, using the concentrated explodium logs- 'I use them in my forge so I don't have to stoke it' to boost the pressure does make sense.
*** That's a bit of ArtisticLicense there, as well. A forge isn't stoked to increase the temperature, it's blown with the bellows. Stoking refers to feeding fuel into a fire of some sort, which you would probably want to avoid having to do in the middle of working a piece.

* Almost every episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' featured Captain Kirk demanding "more power" from Scotty.
** Later deconstructed in a ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration ST:TNG]]'' episode featuring Scotty, in which he explains to Chief Engineer Geordi [=LaForge=] that he always held something back and [[ScottyTime padded time estimates]] to make sure he would come off as a miracle worker. Oh, and as a side effect of Scotty ''writing'' most of the Engineering manuals that they use in Geordi's time, that means that most of the ships in the Star Trek universe by TNG time are running at about 33% efficiency.
*** This [[strike:just good]] ''essential'' engineering practice. A bridge with a 10 ton load limit isn't going to collapse if you put an 11 ton truck on it. It will probably be okay with a 20 ton truck. This also partially supports the SuperPrototype trope, as prototypes are often tested to their limits in order to figure out what those limits actually are.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' used this trope frequently, but inverted it in the episode "Booby Trap", where more power simply fed more energy to the titular devices which held the ship immobile and bombarded it with radiation. The solution was to shut down all the power systems and slip away on minimal life support and a single thruster pack.
** Another inversion in "Hero Worship", when one ship is destroyed (and the ''Enterprise'' nearly follows) by a NegativeSpaceWedgie when it keeps increasing the power to its shields - it turns out the phenomenon was actually an amplified echo of the shields themselves.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' used the device to the point of absurdity, including one instance where "more power" was used to counteract the fact that most of the ship had dissolved into a cloud of deuterium. However, this was also inverted when Voyager hit a [[SpaceIsAnOcean "subspace sandbank"]], so the more they struggled, the more stuck they got. So, they wiggled themselves free with minimal power.
** It also had an absurd case where this trope was applied to ''[[OvenLogic cooking speed]]''.
*** Not absurd that it was tried, however, given that Neelix is generally regarded as a LethalChef.

* The many troubles facing the crew of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' would be solved if only they could locate a sufficient power source; but this is a minor subversion, because the Ancients ''built'' the city for three [=ZPMs=], and they had all burnt out by the time the Atlantis team got there. Much of the first few seasons are spent trying to find more [=ZPMs=] or otherwise come up with a way to solve their power problems.
** There is an episode wherein the power cables are damaged. [=McKay's=] solution? MORE POWER! This is however justified, as [=McKay=] states that the damaged wires are 'leaking' power, and by sending more through them, hopefully enough will get to the device to actually power it.
** The ''Stargate'' franchise in general literally turns this trope UpToEleven. Most equipment will run off energy sources orders of magnitude greater than what they were designed to be used with, boosting their power OverNineThousand. This includes EnergyWeapons, DeflectorShields, and the [[OrganicTechnology living hull]] of a Wraith Hiveship. Normally, a Wraith hiveship is strong enough to withstand a single nuke and quite a few shots from Asgard beam weapons but unable to travel between galaxies due to it's slow speed in hyperspace. However, when a ZPM was tied into the power system, the ship grew a reinforced hull that made Asgard weapons ''COMPLETELY USELESS''... and it crossed several million lightyears in a matter of hours.
** Another example: the stargates themselves. When O'Neill tried to dial the Ida galaxy, the gate couldn't connect even though the entire American power grid was at their disposal. So he disassembled a ''STAFF WEAPON'' and used it's liquid naquadah power cell to make a "power booster". Once he hooked it up to the gate, it suddenly got the energy needed to connect to another stargate four million lightyears away. Mind you: such a connection requires ''ASTRONOMICAL AMOUNTS OF POWER''.

* ''Series/{{Automan}}'' was a hologram that had turned into HardLight because he had simply been "given enough power," as was dryly stated in the opening monologue.

* ''Series/MythBusters''. RuleOfCool applies after they've busted the actually possible part of the myth. A human can't actually swing that hard? Ramp it up as fast as the robot arm will go. The amount of explosives used in the myth doesn't get the stated result? Use a few blocks of C4 then.
** If the myth does prove to be confirmed, they still ramp it up to see how far they can push it. So burning 30,000 matchheads looks exactly like that viral clip... let's see what a [[UpToEleven million matchheads will do!]]
* ''Series/HomeImprovement'', [[TropeNamers naturally]]. One of Tim Taylor's most notable acts was when he put so much fuel into a barbecue grill that it achieved geosynchronous orbit. In general though, his solution to any problem is to put more power in it. Whereas science fiction puts more power into laser cannons and shields, Tim Taylor is the king of MundaneUtility for power levels normally reserved for NASA.
** This was {{Lampshaded}} in at least one case. Tim wanted to buy a security system for his home, but most uncharacteristically, he just wanted a simple system. As soon as he told his friends at the hardware shop he was getting a security system, they immediately assumed he'd go his normal route and went nuts thinking up insane measures to install. One of them announced proudly that Tim's home was going to be the first one with "[[NuclearOption first-strike capabilities]]."
*** Made even funnier: when he got the system home, he told his wife Jill that it was just a basic system with the minimal options. She immediately told him to go back and get a top-of-the-line system, nothing was too great, in this case.
* The [[CoolShip TARDIS]] in DoctorWho can perform even more amazing feats than normal (such as escaping the Big Bang, or leaving the universe entirely) if it deletes some of its own interior rooms for power. This has been seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva Castrovalva]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctor's Wife]]. In the former, this had unforeseen consequences as one of the rooms destroyed was the Zero Room that the Doctor needed to recuperate from his regeneration.
** Averted in "Logopolis" where The Master tries using "more power" in order to reverse entropy, only to be told that "more power will only increase the rate of decay", which is actually ''TruthInTelevision'' (IE The Second Law of Thermodynamics applies).
* LazyTown is one example. As the "evil dude" kipnaps Stephanie, his mind is full of Tim Taylor Technology by using notes.
*** Milford/To Whom it may concern, I have your niece/Stephanie. If you want to see Stephanie/her again, surrender LazyTown to me! R.R.

* ''TheRedGreenShow'' lived and breathed this trope, especially if the Handyman Corner segments were any indication.

* The tinker gnomes from the ''{{Dragonlance}}'' campaign setting, creating absurdly large machines and devices that make a lot of noise and produce a lot of light, and are often ridiculously oversized for the tasks they're designed to do. In game terms, the larger a tinker gnome device, the more chance it has of actually working successfully.

* Geniuses in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' can sometimes forestall Havoc (their inventions going haywire) by pouring Mania into them. Sometimes they explode. But then, of course they occasionally explode! They were built by ''{{Mad Scientist}}s''!
* Just about everything in StarFleetBattles, which makes sense given its [[Franchise/StarTrek source material]]. Shields block more damage if they have more power. Engines move faster if they have more power. Most weapons can be overcharged to do more damage if they have more power. Not turning fast enough? Tilt your warp nacelles sideways and pour more power into a high-energy turn. Tractor beams? Longer range with more power. Resisting enemy tractor beams? Easier with more power. Want to jam your enemy's radar? More power. Want to cut through enemy jamming? More power! It seems that the only thing that can't improve with more power is the life-support system, and presumably the engineers are working on that. In this case it's more a matter of budgeting a limited resource though; there isn't enough power to keep everything maxed all the time.

** It DOES affect maximum performance of systems in ''IndependenceWar'', just because more weapons power means that [=PBCs=] recharge faster, do more damage, and have somewhat longer range. More engine power means both greater acceleration and less time for the LDS drive to start up. More shield power means stronger and faster-recharging shields. Underpowered systems get penalized much as you'd expect. Also note that the best way to fight in this game generally involves spending the vast majority of time with maxed engine power and only going into maxed weapon power for when you've got a good shot with your [=PBCs=]; very rarely might you divert energy toward shields, since they only tend to block [=PBCs=] (in a game where you tend to have homing missiles spammed at you, each doing about 20% hull damage with the tug), and only from two directions at that.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', when Lucca attempts to send Chrono back in time after Marle, she repeatedly tells Taban to increase the power. That's how [[MadScientist mad science]] works, apparently.
** IIRC, she called for "More Power!" when Marle got sent through the first wormhole. [[JustifiedTrope So maybe she was trying to recreate the conditions.]]

* TruthInTelevision: Aircraft of all kinds (be they prop planes, helicopters or supersonic jets) do not always fly at their maximum speed. They have a 'cruise' speed at which they operate at optimum performance for distance, speed and fuel usage. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-60_Black_Hawk#Specifications_.28UH-60L.29 UH-60 "Black Hawk"]], for example, has a cruise speed of 150 knots (173 mph, 278 km/h) and a "maximum" speed of 159 kn (183 mph, 295 km/h). Some aircraft also have a "never exceed" speed, beyond which flight [[strike:can]] '''will''' become dangerous. Jet engines are also rarely operated at maximum power, because it will reduce their lifespan considerably (and use disproportionally more fuel).
** The most notorious example is the Mig-25. It is "redlined" at Mach 2.8, though it can fly at Mach 3, but one aircraft that was tracked doing so ended up destroying its engines during the flight.
*** And by "destroying," we mean "spinning so fast and with such high suction that it ate pieces of itself until it tore apart." Not to mention the fuel pumps lost all control, meaning the thing was stuck on full throttle until it ran out of fuel. Fun.
**** It's not all that bad. At Mach 3 a Mig-25 is never more than 90 miles away from completely out of fuel. With the afterburners lit the Mig-25's engines are going through 34 pounds of fuel ... every second. The constraints imposed by having to build the whole plane out of stainless steel due to difficulties machining titanium made the Mig-25 rather AwesomeButImpractical.
** Make that ALL aircraft. The Vne generally has less to do with the integrity of the motive power and everything to do with the fact that the airframe itself will start to come apart if the aircraft flies too fast.
** This applies to the four-stroke/two-stroke engine as well. These engines are usually never run anywhere near maximum RPM, for the reason that going that fast will cause a lot of mechanical wear and heat on the engine. Many cars sold have the ECU effectively cap the RPM before the redline (the area in the tachometer that has a red stripe along it). Of course, if you really need that power, you can hack the ECU to not do this.
** Also, combat airplanes technically can turn much tighter than they usually are made to - more often than not it's the pilot who can't take the fact that all ''his'' power (i.e. blood) is being [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-LOC forcibly re-routed to his feet or head]]. Modern flight suits help fighter pilots sustain greater amounts of G-forces than WW2 pilots, but they still have their never exceed limits... which they'll sometimes exceed anyway in life-or-death situations.
* Similar to the aircraft example above, most military vehicles have governers to limit the amount of power the engines are capable of achieving; and thus limiting the vehicle's top speed. When deployed to a combat zone, one of the first things the crews do is remove, disable, or bypass the power governers.

** Nitrous oxide ([=N2O=]) breaks in the cylinder into nitrogen and oxygen. It increases both the concentration of oxygen, making the engine running hotter, and concentration of inert, increasing the cylinder pressure. This will result in a sudden and dramatic increase of revolutions.
*** This device was known as Haha-Gerät (Ha!-Ha! Device) in the WWII Luftwaffe. It enabled the pilot to squeeze some 60% more revolutions off the engine momentarily - enabling a troubled pilot to escape the enemy. It also worked as a psychological weapon; the Haha-Gerät spat out an enormous tongue of flame off the exhaust, giving an impression of the plane igniting. Often that was enough to convince the enemy that the plane was a kill already and give up the pursuit.
**** Before you go wondering about the purpose of that name, remember that nitrous oxide is also laughing gas. Makes watching racing movies a bit funnier when you think about it.
** Another similar device was WEP (War Emergency Power) on American turbocharged radial engines. It employed water-methanol mixture inhection in the cylinder. Germans also employed it as the [=MW-50=] ("Methanol-Wasser 50-50").

* The human body often works this way. Muscles not getting enough oxygen? Crank up the heartbeat and respiration! And if ''that's'' not enough, lactic acid fermentation will provide you with the ''more power'' you need!
** And if ''that's'' not enough? Well, only a third of your muscles normally operate at any one time. Throw them all into gear. (Note that doing this causes massive tissue damage, so the body will save it for live-or-die situations. But this is where stories of people lifting cars unaided come from.) Most primates can do this safely all the time, it's why chimps are so much stronger than a human with the same muscle mass.

Not to be confused with the occasionally-formidable [[Series/TheGoodies Tim Brooke-Taylor Technology]]. Or with needing more ''[[MoreDakka fire]]''[[{{Pun}}-power]].

-->'''Tupolev:''' Inquire about the possibility of going to one hundred five percent on the reactor.

Not to be confused with the occasionally-formidable [[Series/TheGoodies Tim Brooke-Taylor Technology]]. Or with needing more ''[[MoreDakka fire]]''[[IncrediblyLamePun -power]].

* ''HomeImprovement'', [[TropeNamer naturally]]. One of Tim Taylor's most notable acts was when he put so much fuel into a barbecue grill that it achieved geosynchronous orbit. In general though, his solution to any problem is to put more power in it. Whereas science fiction puts more power into laser cannons and shields, Tim Taylor is the king of MundaneUtility for power levels normally reserved for NASA.

-->-- '''Tim Taylor''', ''HomeImprovement''

** Hydran fusion beams take this trope to the logical conclusion: They can be given so much power that they ''explode when fired'', doing additional damage, but also destroying themselves and damaging the ship (this is less of a problem than it sounds for the ships you'd actually do this with). Orions have what's nicknamed the 'cocaine rule' hat allows them to double engine power output...at the cost of burning out their own engines. Again, this is less of a problem than it sounds, as Orions are pirates and normally just raid convoys, and run away from anything else they encounter.

[[DeflectorShields Shields]] failing? More power. Critical pieces burning out? You'd think the solution would be to ''reduce'' the strain on that component, but no, the solution is to increase the power. The NegativeSpaceWedgie has nullified the physical principles on which the ship works? Turn up the power and it'll get scared and back off. Can't compute the Nth digit of pi? Increase power to the computer. Even missing or broken parts can be temporarily replaced by increased power. With the power up so high, it's no wonder there's so much ExplosiveInstrumentation.

* Parodied on TheSimpsons. NASA are watching television to get an idea of what the average American is like. They turn on HomeImprovement to hear Tim Taylor declare he's just finished souping up his lawnmower. Then the lawnmower goes backwards instead of forwards, knocking over the fence and illciting this line

* New moon? Can't see anything? Wanna fix that? Or maybe you're just sick of the moon and want to vaporize the whole thing. Either way, Randall "Webcomic/{{xkcd}}" Munroe [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/ tells you how.]]