Several of the examples here involve small numbers of better-equipped people defeating larger numbers of less-well-equipped people (a real-world phenomenon known as force multiplication). This trope is supposed to be about smaller groups being better than larger ones BECAUSE of the size, not in spite of it.

"Applies to Pokemon as well. Trainers with a five or six-member party are usually Bug Catchers or Fishermen, and will use lots of lower-levelled pokemon, or weaker pokemon in general (like caterpies and magikarps). A trainer with only one pokemon will be substantially higher-leveled."

Well, to be fair, the more Pokemon, the more time it takes to train them.

Possible new picture for this page: cuz everythings better with kittens.

k, it won't show up. srybye

I think we should change the name of this trope.

I don't think this trope is accurately named, at least to the extent its name recalls laws of physics such as "the law of conservation of energy." Ninjutsu isn't conserved in TV, usually: people die, causing the universe to lose ninjutsu, and novices become experts, thus adding Ninjutsu. Therefore, ninjutsu is not conserved. But more importantly, it's not just false, it's off topic—this trope is about the inverse relationship between numbers and skill, not about how skill changes.

Let me propose a better name: Equipartition of Ninjutsu, after the Equipartition Theorem of thermodynamics. The Equipartition Theorem says that energy tends to divide itself evenly among degrees of freedom. Similarly, Equipartition of Ninjutsu says that skill tends to divide itself equally among groups of fighters in a fight. So, if it's Rambo vs. 20 Viet Cong, each Viet Cong will, for that fight, have about 1/20th the skill of Rambo, thus making a balanced fight that's interesting to watch. If it's Norrington, Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner, each will get an equal 1/3 of the total skill, making a nearly three way tie.

This trope is confusingly misnamed—let's fix it. Who's with me?

There are actual real life examples that follow this trope to the letter, as well as some that follow it by accident.

Dogfighting had this in both World Wars. Bing outnumbered by a huge factor actually helps you in a dogfight, for various reasons. Also, anyone who is willing to fight against such ridiculous odds willingly is either incredibly stupid or incredibly skilled, as was the case with several famous aces in WW 1 and WW 2. Also often seen in WW 2 where American pilots would often be outnumbered by more numerous, but less experienced and skilled (for various reasons) Japanese and German pilots in the later days of the war.