History Main / LudicrousPrecision

* In the ''Anime/SkyGirls'' OVA, Karen uses this to show that she is the team's SmartGuy.

* In 2021's ''Film/{{Dune|2021}}'', the Mentat of House Atreides Thufir Hawat can calculate what a ship and navigators cost for a space travel to Caladan in an instant and with extreme precision.

* The ''Franchie/TouhouProject'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1E2nN5Fwzk fanvideo]] features Yamaxanadu Shikieiki convicting many ''Touhou'' characters of various crimes. One of them is Suika, who is accused for stalking Inaba since 100 million years and 2 weeks ago.
** She then proceeds to punish 12 other youkai by fining them [[spoiler: "300 grams of boob apiece"]]. [[LampshadeHanging She doesn't think it's too much, given the size of the convicted.]]

* The dates in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are already quite precise as the title indicates it takes place after 40,000AD. It's stated that the Fornax Aleph was struck by an asteroid on May 9, 40,578.

'''Lucsly:''' A Friday.

* At the start of ''Conquest of Space'' (1955), the commander tells off his NumberOne for being one second out in his estimate of how late is a resupply shuttle, saying that a single second can be important in space travel. This is certainly true, though it's more to establish him as TheNeidermeyer.

* In computer and communication systems, the timing of signals is important to maintaining communication. Most communication protocols have a fixed speed they talk at. While the time scales of these speeds have gotten insane, to the point where ''pico''seconds are a practical scale, the ludicrous precision part is the tolerance allowed in certain protocols. For example, if a protocol requires at 15 [=MHz=] signal to be accurate within 1 part per million, the signal itself cannot drift by more than 15 [=Hz=], ''ever''.

* During the supercomputer Watson's run on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', whenever Watson was asked to make a wager in Daily Double or Final Jeopardy, it would bet amounts as precise as the show's rules would allow, based on its calculations on how likely its answer was correct. Human players almost always bet round numbers. Watson, instead, would bet amounts like $6435 or $947.

* In ''Literature/{{Momo}}'', one of the grey men giving his age. Justified, since they're not human.

* The ''VideoGame/TouhouProject'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1E2nN5Fwzk fanvideo]] features Yamaxanadu Shikieiki convicting many Touhou characters of various crimes. One of them is Suika, who is accused for stalking Inaba since 100 million years and 2 weeks ago.

* While [[ExpandedUniverse not appearing in the games themselves]], ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'s'' Renko Usami has this with her ability to read the time from the stars, right down to the second at the very least. It's assumed her accuracy when getting her location from the moon is just as precise.

* ''Fanfic/{{Missing}}'': In the beginning drabble, Lestrade reflects that it's been a week since Watson went missing and he hypothesizes that Holmes knows the exact number of hours and minutes.

* In one episode, Homer hears that the average man lives to be 76.2 years old, and freaks out because, since he's 38.1, his life is half gone. He's more upset when Marge points out that he's actually 39.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Homer hears that the average man lives to be 76.2 years old, and freaks out because, since he's 38.1, his life is half gone. He's more upset when Marge points out that he's actually 39.

* Dnerd in ''WesternAnimation/TheBOTSMaster'' often spouted off really precise statistics, though this took a backseat to his being completely incapable of carrying a standard conversation.
-->"Calm down, Dnerd, it's just playacting."\\

[[quoteright:210:[[Webcomic/PvP https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ludicrous_precision_2.jpg]]]]

* Every video on Website/{{YouTube}} tells the exact number of views it's had. This can get very impressive when some have views in the ''billions''. YouTube is simply the largest video sharing site, but really any lesser known website with videos or games could qualify. The number of views on a channel are even '''higher'''.

* [[InvokedTrope Deliberately invoked]] with the calculation of the highest point of Mount Everest, known as Peak XV. Its height, calculated by the Great Trigonometric Survey as the average of several independent measurements, came to exactly 29,000 feet. Two extra feet were then arbitrarily added, bringing the official height to 29,002 feet, so that the value did not look like a rounded estimate.

* According to the [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30954673 BBC]], the New Horizons probe's closest approach to Pluto will be ''roughly'' 13,695km.

* Journalists are very prone to treating opinion polls as more precise than they really are. The time before any election will see many such cases. For example, if one particular poll suggests candidate A has 43% support while candidate B has 41%, many newspapers will quickly conclude that A is leading. This ignores the fact that even the most scientific polls will often have a 3% margin of error. [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/fakeprec.html See]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive042010.html#04242010 the]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive042010.html#04072010 Fallacy]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive122009.html#12092009 Files]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive092009.html#09302009 for]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive072008.html#07122008 several]] [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive062008.html#06262008 examples]]. A more in-depth view of the phenomenon can be found [[http://www.fallacyfiles.org/readpoll.html here]].

* Many, many films and series give way too exact estimates of oxygen supply or poison effects. Both can easily vary by a factor of 2 if not more.

* Often PlayedForLaughs in the comics of Creator/CarlBarks and Creator/DonRosa, where it became a RunningGag to give the value Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s fortune as [[EleventyZillion some ludicrously huge number]] plus sixteen cents (or similar). In fact, the page image for EleventyZillion is an example of this.

* Applied then subverted in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Him Diddle Riddle." The girls are tasked with determining where two trains will collide as part of a series of riddles. Blossom frantically works with an abacus then toisses it to the side saying "We're superheroes. Let's just find the trains and stop them!"