History Main / AbstractScale

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' once had a device that measured coolness in [[Series/HappyDays mega-Fonzies]]. There was also the funkometer for smells and a device that measured the musical talents of the Music/BeastieBoys.

** It's stated in ''Bender's Big Score'' that a normal person emits about 10 milli[[DoomyDoomsOfDoom dooms]] per second. It becomes a plot point that [[CloningBlues duplicates]] created by the Time Sphere [[OnlyOneMeAllowedRightNow emit much larger quantities]] in order to prevent/correct [[TemporalParadox paradoxes]].

Compare HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure, which is when someone measures a quantifiable thing in a strange way.

* ''Wavelength'' gives players one of several scales (e.g. from Boring Topic to Facinating Topic). The clue giver receives a position on said scale, and gives a clue about the position (e.g. TV Tropes). Other players turn the dial in order to match the position explained by the clue giver, then removes the cover to see if they were close enough to score points (e.g. Dial was at 90%, but the correct answer was 80% - only two of four points scored.) The other team an also guess whether the dial should be further left or right for one extra point.

* One ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' comic cites the made-up unit "the fermule" as "the basic unit of physics." One reader lampshades the silliness of this in the comments section: "That's right. Losing control of a 200 kg van on an icy road while traveling at 45 mph, skidding off a 45 degree turn and wrapping that van three times around a tree takes a total of 67 fermules of physics."

* Certain fans on the internet have made the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson]], a unit of [[OffTheRails plot derailment]] (one full Henderson means that the GM's intended plot is irretrivably gone and a new one must be made from scratch), particularly of [[TabletopGames tabletop RPGs]]. Its creation was inspired the story of FanFic/OldManHenderson, the man who "won" TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu (which is practically impossible). Henderson was a highly eccentric (and psychotic) PlayerCharacter devised to get back at a particularly agitating GM in the most imaginable ways possible. His exploits include: burning a Shoggoth, stealing a yacht from a Hastur cult, dropping said yacht on a Cthulhu cult's penthouse (and starting a cultist gang war), ''The'' tanker truck incident, and "Hell on Ice". Henderson's exploits included a surprising number of counts of arson, most accidental, and accidentally killing a lot of people, including nearly every other player's characters at least once, and incidentally, everybody who could link Henderson to a crime.

** The What-If Machine can answer any what-if question accurate to within one tenth of a plausibility unit.

* When a Linux computer boots, it measures the performance of the processor it is running on in "[=BogoMIPS=]", defined as "the number of million times per second a processor can do absolutely nothing". This unit is explicitly meaningless for any kind of comparison between computers (although that doesn't stop people from boasting with their values); its only purpose is to calibrate the kernel's internal busy-loop.
* Behold, the [[http://cuiltheory.wikidot.com/what-is-cuil-theory Cuil Theory]]: a theorhetical system of measurement by which we can ascertain just how weird any given situation is.

* In the field of psychology, it's possible to create a rating scale for pretty much any human trait, so researchers sometimes end up creating unusual and offbeat scales for things that they want to study but few others attempt to measure. There are widely used and thoroughly validated scales for things like personality and emotion, of course, and slightly more offbeat measures like how much of a morning person you are or how much you conform to your designated gender role, but also weirder things like enjoyment of some random consumer product, experiences with alien abduction, obedience to political leaders, correlations between creativity and psychoticism, etc. Psychologists who measure such bizarre constructs sometimes get the HardOnSoftScience treatment and/or ItWillNeverCatchOn.

* [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1716#comic This]] ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' measures anger in [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk miliHulks]], fear in [[BringMyBrownPants deciPantscraps]] and awkwardness in [[SelfDeprecation microWeiners]] (all in the "votey", the red button).

* An archon in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' measured evil in terms of [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html kilo-nazis]], with a baseline of a hypothetical offspring of [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Vil]] and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]] clocking in at an average of 5 (that means as evil as '''5000''' nazis). The person being discussed, Belkar, for comparison had his worst at around 3400 nazis before meeting his new friend and boss Roy.

* In ''[[Manga/TheDisastrousLifeOfSaikiK The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.]]'', one of the titular [[TheOmnipotent Kusuo Saiki]]'s [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands stranger]] [[PsychicPowers abilities]] is a counter that measures love. It's usually used by his parents, often [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther revealing more than they'd like]].

* Scouter readings for PowerLevels in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' don't seem to just quantify stored energy, but seem to be able to quantify fighting effectiveness, as evidenced by Goku's and Picolo's power levels registering higher after they take off their weighted clothing. The author states they ''are'' just supposed to be measurements of raw power, and thus an unreliable oversimplification for determining fighting ability, but what's shown in-series speaks to the contrary.

* Scouter readings for PowerLevels in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' don't seem to just quantifying stored energy, but seems to be able to quantify fighting effectiveness, as evidenced by Goku's and Picolo's power levels registering higher after they take off their weighted clothing. The author states they ''are'' just supposed to be measurements of raw power, and thus an unreliable oversimplification for determining fighting ability, but what's shown in-series speaks to the contrary.

* The ''Wiki/RPCAuthority'' has what is known as an [[http://rpcauthority.wikidot.com/acs-guide Anderson Coherency Scale]], which is used to measure the levels of coherency of reality which is very useful for the authority since it regularely has to battle against reality warppers.

* ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'' book gauged the value of a news story in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Buttafuoco Buttafuocos]].

* One episode of Series/TheColbertReport had Stephen rating Nazis on a scale of 1 to 10 Hitlers. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself got only 9 Hitlers because "[[EvenEvilHasStandards nobody gets 10 Hitlers."]]

* Some games use a hard-to-typify property called "bulk" to roughly indicate how awkward something is to carry around. A thing with high "bulk" could be that way because it's heavy, odd-shaped, badly balanced, droopy, whatever.