History Main / Microts

* There's an example in the first chapter of ''Manga/{{Barrage}}'': the protagonist is said to be earning 7 [[ArtisticLicensePhysics quarks]] an hour, with a footnote saying a quark is worth about as much as a yen (¥7 ≈ $0.09). That's no doubt meant to tell the readers how poor he is, and presumably that's based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity purchasing power]] as opposed to exchange rate, as the series takes place in a ConstructedWorld.
* In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', the Grand Priest gives the time until the Tournament of Power and the length of the Tournament itself in fictional units such as takks, explaining that 100 takks equals 48 minutes.

* The time system in Ketafa in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' (and, later, also in Baravada in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'') is some strange thing divided into five big chunks, four sets of five smaller chunks, and 400 smaller units. Times are called, very prosaically, "2-3" or "5-5" or whatever. The four never bother to find out anything about it, and the only time it matters to them is in ''Keys'' when they need to be somewhere at a particular time, or when one of the minor magic items they acquire has a time limit. They do, however, get a pocket watch.

* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', Kuyou Suou measures time in terms of number of rotations of a black hole rotating at approximately maximum speed, which is about 1,150 per second.
* In ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace'' a hostile [[PlantAliens plant alien]] demands the human authorities hand over twenty ''gurqs'' of uranium (a ''gurq'' is equivalent to one Earth kilogram) and a hundred ''geeks'' of fertilizer (a ''geek'' is equivalent to the weight of one sci-fi fan) within one ''neegath'' (equivalent to one Earth hour minus 0.0095746338th of a microsecond). There are also ''neeps'', each equivalent to one Hollywood minute: a [[MagicCountdown circumstantially-variable duration of time]].
* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' has this come up with one of the show's longest running mysteries: Ash's age. In fic, ''Ash'' himself has no idea how long his journey pre time travel was as per one of the stories ongoing jokes, so he eventually starts to measure the length of time he was traveling in gym battles.
* ''Fanfic/WarriorsRedux'' revamps the system of time used in the ''Warriors'' series. Cats judge time by the position of the sun and moon. They also have their own names for the seasons. To be more specific:
-->Time is marked visually by the position of the sun and moon - half, low, tilt and high are the words by which cats estimate their version of hours. Half is when the sun or moon is peeking over the horizon; Low is about a paw's width from the horizon; Tilt is the range from Half to just before noon; and High (otherwise called noon or midnight) is when the sun or moon is at its highest, marking the middle of the day or night. Using these terms, a cat will not say "it took 4 hours", but "it took from low-moon to tilt".\\
Moons and half-moons are both recognized portions of time, but only moons are used commonly. Like with humans, a moon is about a month, chronicling the complete lunar cycle. A half-moon is harder to gauge, since it's usually used in the context of remembering a recent event, but stands at around 10-15 days. The cats may instead describe the shape of the moon during the event being discussed, using closed, open, and the various descriptors inbetween.\\
Seasons are a larger chunk of time, and very hazily defined, bleeding into each other depending on the weather. Last year's winter can be much shorter than this year's, for example, if it was a little warmer or took longer to snow. A season being skipped over entirely is an omen of terrible things to come. The feline words for seasons refer to the conditions of the trees, roughly translatable to "leaf-bare" (winter/Shou), "new-leaf" (spring/Aora), "green-leaf" (summer/Hhen), and "leaf-fall") (autumn/Kih). There are a variety of other nicknames referring to things associated with these seasons which go in and out of popularity with the seasons themselves.

* ''Film/MenInBlack'' uses this trope in a grimly comedic way, tossing 'week' in where it really shouldn't go...
-->'''Kay:''' Arquillian battle rules, kid: first we get an ultimatum, then a warning shot, then we have a galactic standard week to respond.\\
'''Jay:''' A "galactic standard week?" How the hell long is that?\\
'''Zed:''' One hour.

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Zod and his followers are sentenced to the Phantom Zone for three hundred "cycles". These are presumably Kryptonian years, but since no matter how much time they measure, Krypton [[DoomedHometown doesn't have three hundred of them left]], it quickly become a moot point.

* Inverted in ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', which uses a ten-day "week". {{Downplayed|Trope}} since this is mentioned exactly once outside [[AllThereInTheManual the glossary]]; most of the viewpoint characters are from rural areas that don't usually keep track of anything more precise than the seasons and don't even know the names of the days. One character who refers to "a week or ten days" is assumed to mean "a week, [[YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord i.e.: ten days]]".
* In Steven Brust's ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, a Dragaeran week is 5 days. Humans/Easterners still use seven-day weeks, and even fortnights (14 days), which Vlad (raised in Dragaera) thinks is a really weird period of time to have a name for because it is "...one day shorter than three weeks."

* ''Literature/TheDispossessed'' has "decads", which are ten-day weeks.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has a year... that's made up of 15 months and 5 days that are "outside the year", called Calibration. Also, every month is made of exactly 28 days.
** [[TruthInTelevision Some calendar systems actually do have "extra days" that are considered outside the normal months or year]]. Depending on the culture, they may be considered especially lucky or unlucky.
* The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has the "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin tenday]]", which some nations call a "ride." Hilarity sometimes ensues due to confusion, when a person says "two rides" and listeners think they mean two days of riding.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia''. Alpha Complex used the phrase "half a cycle" for the period between 1 wake-up call and the next (i.e. 1 day). A "cycle" was therefore 2 days.
* In the old ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting "Hollow World," where the setting lacked a day-night cycle, the basic unit of time was the "march."
* The [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperial_Dating_System Imperial Dating System]] of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' records dates in the format of check number, year fraction, year, millennium (e.g. 0123456.M41). The check number refers to how far removed the recorded event is from Terra (0 being on Terra, 9 being in the Warp and therefore chronologically unreliable). The year fraction refers to when in the year the event occurred in a system divided into one thousand units; each increment corresponds to roughly eight hours and forty-five minutes. The year and millennium are straightforward. The example works out to "This event happened on Terra in the 123rd increment of the 456th year of the 41st millennium."

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series has the "sezura", "mizura", "tezura", "wozura", "mazura" and "jazura", developed by the local LizardFolk Teladi. None of them directly correspond to Earth time units. 1 sezura = 1.7 seconds, 1 mizura = 96 sezuras (2 min, 43 sec), and continuing into ever more irregular measurements. ''X2: The Threat'' dropped the alternate measurements; the games still use the alternate names, but they correspond directly with standard time measurements, like one mizura being one minute. ''X3: Terran Conflict'' switches to standard Earth time units, coincidentally as Earth is [[LostColony reconnected]] to the rest of the universe.
* The Slylandro in ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' have "rotation," "Drahnasa," and "Drahn" which are something like their equivalent of days, years, and millennia (not particularly similar in duration to ours though). It would be tricky to decode these except that pretty much everything interesting that's happened on a galactic scale happens in one of three time periods (Quite Recently, A Long Time Ago and A Really, Really Long Time Ago) so luckily it's not too hard to figure out what they're on about.
** To be more precise, one "rotation" is one "day" of their planet, 1 Drahn is equal to 4 million rotations and one Drahn is divided into two thousand Drahnasa. [[http://uqm.stack.nl/forum/index.php?topic=1169.0 Some code examination]] reveals that the rotation of the Slylandro homeplanet is 14.2 earth hours which tells us that one Drahnasa is equal to 1180 earth days (a little over 3 years) and one Drahn is 2370000 earth days (roughly 6500 years).
* The people of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' universe use "cycles" for a span of time somewhere between a few months and about a year. Space Pirate logs often talk about projects being developed over the course of a few cycles, for example figuring out how to infuse their troops with Phazon in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', especially as it took multiple failed attempts. U'mos in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' is mentioned to be several centicycles old (technically it should be centocycles, but that's [[UnitConfusion a different trope entirely]]). Might it be some based on other planet's year? By the time of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', however, references to cycles have been replaced by references to mundane years and months.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', The Tasen and Komato use "cycles", "pulsecycles", and "starturns", although how they correspond to human units of time is unknown. Starturns would presumably be a Komato year, but since we don't know how long it takes their planet to orbit, it doesn't help much.
** According to WordOfGod, a Starturn equals a year (how long it takes Origin [[spoiler:(i.e. [[EarthAllAlong Earth]])]] to make a full orbit around its star), a Longturn equals a month (but it's unknown how many make up a Starturn), a Turn a day (how long it takes Origin to make one rotation around its axis), a Cycle an hour (unknown how many make up a Turn), a Shortcycle a minute (unknown how many make up a Cycle), and a pulsecycle a second (whatever the Komato pulse was when they came up with it).

* The ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' series is a bit inconsistent about this, using a fictitious unit of measurement called a "klom" interchangeably with "kilometre" on at least one occasion without making it clear from context whether the former is slang for the latter or an exception to the TranslationConvention. Conflicting reports on the canonical size of in-game units doesn't help clear this up.
* In ''VideoGame/TheFeebleFiles'', the game's characters frequently use "cycle" and "click" when referring to various amounts of time. It's never made clear what ''exactly'' is the amount of time these two are supposed to represent.
* The ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' series typically uses "cubits"[[note]]a real life unit in ancient Mediterranean cultures representing the length of a forearm and hand, between 17 and 21 inches depending on the culture and era[[/note]] as a unit of length, combined with SI prefixes. For instance, an unexpectedly important part in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' is a "3 3/4 centicubit hexagonal washer."
* A careful look at the clocks in ''VideoGame/{{Stray|2022}}'' shows that they have sixteen hours instead of the usual twelve. Which makes sense for a civilization of robots as 16 = 2[[superscript:4]] or 10000 in binary.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' the dragons and Nemesites measure time in "zarps." Since "half a zarp" seems to equal at least a short night's sleep, we can guess a full zarp is probably something between 12 and 16 hours. An author's comment when they first appear compares them to [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} astroseconds,]] [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 centons,]] and [[Series/DoctorWho rels.]]
* The trolls in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' call years "sweeps", although the Alternian year is equal to around 2.16 Earth years.
* In ''Webcomic/EscapeFromTerra'' most Belters use a decimalized calendar and time-keeping system designed by the Mars colonists. Particularly "centimes" (about 14.8 minutes) and "decadays" (10 Martian days).
* In ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'' the galaxy has apparently adopted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch_Internet_Time Swatch Internet Time]]
* Characters in ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' use 'layers'. A 'layer' is stated to be [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall about the amount of time it takes to read a page of the average webcomic.]][[note]]Since time isn't real in-universe, a 'layer' really does equal however much 'time' can be covered by one page of the webcomic, no matter how much or how little actually happens on that page.[[/note]] Other, more poorly-defined units of 'time' include 'spiralings' and 'cubeoids' (which probably equate to individual panels and entire story arcs).
* TheGreys in ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'' measure time in "gandans". These are [[https://www.gpf-comics.com/archive.php?d=19990319 first mentioned]] when Pi says he and Planck will be "tortured for a thousand gandans" for failing to abduct Fooker. When they [[https://www.gpf-comics.com/archive.php?d=20010927 reappear]] less than three years later, he admits that a thousand gandans is about fifteen seconds. Longer periods of time are measured in mega-gandans, giga-gandans, and so on.

** In ''[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Beast Wars: Transformers]]'', 'cycles' are used for minute-like timespans. There are also "nano-kliks" (roughly a second), "decacycles," "megacycles," and "stellar cycles," which varied DependingOnTheWriter (megacycles at one point going from roughly an hour to, from context, roughly a year).

** The original ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' series had the infamous "astroseconds," "astrominutes," "astrolitres," "a Cybertronic mili-inch," etc. The first episode mentioned a unit of time called a "quartex," but it was never mentioned again.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', Donatello calculates a ratio of 1 Triceraton trigon to 10 minutes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'', the characters said things like "In a nano" or "Gimme a nano." Nano as nanosecond. The characters living in a computer, [[JustifiedTrope this actually makes sense]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' uses "moons" as a "longer-than-a-week-but-shorter-than-a-year" measurement of time, and never specifies exactly how long a "moon" is. The obvious guess, that it's simply a pony-ism for "month" due to how its used and the association with lunar cycles, immediately falls apart when recalling that in this setting, the moon is controlled manually, and every ''other'' unit of time is unchanged. [[WordOfGod The show's director eventually clarified]] that "it's a unit of time with no human equivalent," which fits its tendency to be used when the writers don't want to worry too much about the timeline. To give a few examples:
** The Apple Family Reunion is held "every 100 moons".
** The Crystal Mirror to the human world in the ''Equestria Girls'' spinoff opens once "every thirty moons" for three days. Twilight later uses an invention to open the mirror manually so they can go through whenever they want.
** In the GrandFinale, Twilight establishes the Council of Friendship between herself and her friends when she moves back to Canterlot to become the new ruler of Equestria, which meets up "once a moon".
* In ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', Alteans measure time in "ticks", which a prolonged gag has the team eventually deduce are ''slightly'' longer than seconds. The second season expands on this: A decafeeb is somewhere between a years and a decade, a quintant is roughly a day, a varga seems to be about an hour, and dobashes are more or less a minute. After a while, the Paladins manage to pick up on it.

* Historically, attempts to replace seven-day weeks with something else have failed. This has been attributed to, of all things, bearded men preferring to trim their facial hair on the same day each week: wait longer than seven days and it grows enough to get tangled; don't wait as long, and they're grooming themselves before there's much need to do so.
** The Metric calendar failed in part because pretty much everyone (this was revolution-era [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar France]]) still had to use the old calendar to track the Sundays. A calendar change also causes problems for holidays like Easter, the date of which is based on the interface between a seven-day week and the lunar cycle and moves every year. [[note]]This was intentional, trying to undermine the power of the church.[[/note]]

** In UsefulNotes/{{the Bronze Age|OfComicBooks}}, comics stated that Kryptonian time was divided into "dendars", their equivalent of a minute that consists of one hundred seconds.

* A careful look at the clocks in ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'' shows that they have sixteen hours instead of the usual twelve. Which makes sense for a civilization of robots as 16 = 2[[superscript:4]] or 10000 in binary.

-->-- ''Series/RedDwarf'', "Emohawk: Polymorph II"

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* TropeNamer ''Series/{{Farscape}}'s'' alien characters commonly use 'microt', 'arn' and 'cycle' in place of 'second', 'hour' and 'year' (roughly). John Crichton (the only Earth character in the series) picks up on it, and often counters with nonsense of his own. They also use "solar days" (a real world NASA term to describe a planet's local rotation) even in situations where there isn't a planet to refer to. Some of that may be handwaved by Crichton having TranslatorMicrobes.
* The original 1979 ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' series used "microns" for seconds, "centons" for minutes (or for hours in the series pilot), "centars" for hours, "sectons" for weeks, and "yahrens" for years.

* Re-imagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' averts this, except for some documents visible onscreen in Armistice Station in the Miniseries, which use original-series terminology. Spoken dialogue and other writings have "years", "minutes", etc.
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', Daleks use "rels" to indicate a short period of time, which varies between about one and two seconds from one episode to another.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': The Kinitawowi are shown to use hanaka as form of time measurement in "Emohawk: Polymorph II". Kryten says a hanaka is exactly the same as a minute, which somehow leads the Cat to calculate that five hanaka is twenty-eight hours.

*** The planet in "Time and Again" used rotations, intervals, and fractions. And Hindu-Arabic numerals.
*** Averted in "Prime Factors" when an alien gives a measurement based on the distance between the sun and her home planet, and Harry Kim mentally converts it to light years.
*** A recently de-assimilated Seven Of Nine once [[NoSocialSkills attempted to participate in a conversation]] regarding children by remarking that "[[WouldHurtAChild Children]] [[HiveMind assimilated by the Borg]] are placed in maturation chambers for seven cycles". [[EpicFail That went over about as well as could be expected]]. The exact length of the "cycles" she mentioned was not stated, and considering the nature of the Borg could be anywhere from seconds to years (though probably closer to the latter).
* Parodied in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Wormhole X-Treme!" where one of the characters in the ShowWithinAShow used 'bleems' as a measurement of time comparable to years. This was quite likely a subtle case of good-humored ribbing via [[ActorAllusion Actor Allusion]], since by by this point Ben Browder and Claudia Black, the former lead stars of trope namer Farscape, had joined Stargate SG-1 as regular cast members.

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