| 1 | [[quoteright:249:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evilinkilonazis_3462.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:249:The green line represents a hypothetical offspring of [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Ville]] and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]].[[note]]It's useful to have a baseline for comparison for these things.[[/note]]]] |
| 3 | Instead of going with normal measurement unit names, fiction will make up their own. Expect [[AllThereInTheManual a guide]] to have conversions between them and real units. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | In some cases, especially ScienceFiction or SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic, units will have to be invented where they do not exist in normal speech. Magical energy is likely to have some unit. Particularly well developed settings may even specify what the unit is; for example, one Merlin might be defined as the magical energy required to push a specific object a specific distance. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Compare HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure, where a unit is scaled to a specific object. Compare TwentyPercentMoreAwesome, for abstractions that can't really be numerically quantified. See {{Microts}} for units relating to time and AlternativeCalendar for different ways of arranging time units. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Note: [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This article does not necessarily deal with exceptionally good measurement systems]], though a fictional measurement system that's well-defined and easy to understand would be pretty fantastic. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ---- |
| 12 | !!Examples: |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 17 | * In ''Anime/BackArrow'', height is measured in "gents", with appears to be an equivalent of meters, since a character of average build states that he's 1,78 gent tall. |
| 18 | * In ''Anime/DairuggerXV'', distances are measured in "space kilometers." Exactly how big a space kilometer is varies widely from one episode to the next. |
| 19 | * In ''Anime/DeathNote'', the {{Shinigami}} keep time in their own system, which we see as numbers floating above people's heads, which measure the time left until that person's natural death. These numbers are apparently not random: [[WordOfGod the author]] claims to have had a mathematical formula for converting between human and Shinigami timekeeping systems, but he's forgotten it. |
| 20 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'': |
| 21 | ** Though it's never named, there obviously is a unit to measure one's strength in. In the games it's often referenced as B.P. (Battle Power), and the English dub of the anime just calls it one's "Power Level". In this system, the average human would rate 2-5 and a master martial artist would top out around 100. By the middle of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the numbers we're dealing with are in the ''millions''. According to WordOfGod, power and potential cannot be measured in numbers, and power levels become totally meaningless early on. |
| 22 | ** Babidi uses his own scale to measure power, in "kilis". According to him, 300 kilis is necessary to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy a planet]], and Goku as a Super Saiyan has 3000. Due to the difference between those two numbers not making much sense (Goku has ''far'' more than ten times the energy to blow up a planet), some have assumed it's a logarithmic scale. |
| 23 | ** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': The gods measure time in "tiks" (8 hours) and "taks" (an exact equivalence is never given, but it's slightly more than 2 minutes). |
| 24 | * In ''Literature/TheFamiliarOfZero'', a mage's power level is based on a scale of one to four, with higher numbers being more powerful. Level 1 is Dot, level 2 is Line, level 3 is Triangle and level 4 is Square. Mages need to be at least Line rank to be able to use two kinds of ElementalPowers, though it's unclear if this is a matter of training or natural affinity, and even single-element mages are exponentially more powerful in that element depending on their rank. It's unclear if rank is simply something a mage is born with or if it can be trained to make them stronger. |
| 25 | * ''Manga/HandymanSaitouInAnotherWorld'': "maderaca" is a unit of measurement used in the story. Morlock explains that the first ruler of Maderaca had a GagPenis and its length was used as said measurement. |
| 26 | * When fans ask ''Manga/OnePiece'' writer Creator/EiichiroOda things like the extent that someone who ate the [[RubberMan Gomu-Gomu fruit]] can stretch, Oda's response is something along the lines of "100 Gomu-Gomus" [[TrollingCreator without telling us how long a Gomu-Gomu is]]. When someone asked him how Gomu-Gomus convert into litres, Oda responded that you can't really put it in those terms but 1 Gomu-Gomu is about 10 "Fairy Tale Gomu-Gomus" which are each about about 10 "Funky Gomu-Gomus". He does the same thing for the [[DetachmentCombat Bara-Bara fruit]] and the [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Hana-Hana fruit]], except the measures are in Bara-Baras and Hana-Hanas. |
| 27 | * In ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', a spellcaster's magical prowess is determined by two of these applied to {{mana}}: pool capacity and bucket capacity. Pool capacity is how much {{mana}} a caster can safely store at one time, and this increases with practice and regular use of spells. Bucket capacity is how much {{mana}} a caster can actually take from their pool at any one time, and this limit is fixed from birth. For this reason, bucket capacity is what really defines how powerful a spellcaster is, since all spells have a minimum amount of mana that they need before they can be cast. The most powerful [[PlayingWithFire Fire Shamanism]] spell, [[FantasticNuke Blast Bomb]], has effectively been lost to humanity because no person in centuries has had a bucket capacity high enough to cast it. To put this in perspective, ''[[PersonOfMassDestruction Lina Inverse]]'' doesn't have the bucket capacity to cast Blast Bomb without wearing power-booster talismans! |
| 28 | * The Underworld in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline Alicization'' uses cels and mels in place of centimeters and meters. |
| 29 | * In ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'', hours are generally referred to as "bells"; for example, the 15th bell seems to be 3:00 in the afternoon. |
| 30 | * ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' manages to go along with and avert this by using (kilo)calories to describe maximum energy levels, or the amount of energy that attacks use up. Although the kilocalorie is a real and quantifiable unit of measurement of energy, the numbers reach the hundreds of millions of kilocalories (the energy an average person would exert in 140 years or so) so frequently and without the backlashes that would come from the real-life use of these real units that the actual units bear little meaning whatsoever. |
| 31 | * ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Distances are measured in "Iles," which are just "miles" with one letter removed. Not to mention, the unit of money is called "Double Dollars", represented, of course, with "$$" (seems like just a waste of time and ink really). |
| 32 | [[/folder]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 35 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': When Amadeus Cho studies magical phenomena, he measures the reality-warping field strength in "hercs", one herc being equal to the field strength of his friend Hercules. It sounds like "hertz" so it's pretty natural to tack on SI prefixes like megahercs or gigahercs, but most of the measurements he gives are between zero and five hercs. |
| 36 | * The various ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchises use various [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Units_of_length units of length]] and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Units_of_time time.]] While they used generic "cycles" a lot, the earliest Cybertronian units of measurement had such names as "breem," "vorn," and "orn." This has been largely dropped in recent books like ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' and ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'' in favor of using more familiar measurement systems like seconds, minutes, and hours for time and feet and miles for distance. |
| 37 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 38 | ** According to ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron'', in old Krypton, distances were measured in "sesats". |
| 39 | --->'''Thara Ak-Var:''' Anyway, it's a thirteen-sesat hike. We'll see the Falls with our own eyes soon enough. |
| 40 | ** ''ComicBook/AdventuresOfSupergirl'': [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} The titular Kryptonian heroine]] mentions that her sister weighs 31 Sulls, but she is too busy at the time to calculate the equivalent in pounds. |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 44 | * ''Fanfic/BeyondHeroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium'': When [[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Varric meets the Iron Bull]], he estimates that Bull is "at least two Varrics tall, probably closer to three." |
| 45 | * Many ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfics have the ponies measure distance in "hooves" rather than feet. Apparently on the logic that the ponies wouldn't use a unit of measurement named for an appendage they don't have (and ignoring the fact that the original show actually ''does'' use feet). Some authors also use "lengths" as "yards," and ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'' uses "leaps" as the pony mile. |
| 46 | * ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'': A footnote briefly mentions that the Kerbal "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit Astronomical Unit]]" is slightly shorter than its human equivalent. At all other times, either TranslationConvention applies or they use the same measurement system as humans. |
| 47 | * ''Fanfic/{{Sagittarius|Destiny}}'': The [[VideoGame/{{Destiny}} Cabal]] measure distances using units of ''chrens''. |
| 48 | * ''Fanfic/SharingTheNight'': In addition to the standard hooves instead of feet, Twilight measures things in bookshelves and bookshelf-heights. |
| 49 | * ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'': |
| 50 | ** To measure unicorn's [[PowerLevel magical capability]], with the Celestia Meter (Adjusted) for raw power and the Luna Meter (Adjusted) for manipulative ability. Basically, strength and dexterity for horns. Both range from 0 (nonexistent) to 10 (alicorn). |
| 51 | ** There are also several more mundane measurements, including Celests (a unit of length equal to the distance from the ground to the top of Celestia's shoulder), bale-weights and bale-tons (smaller and larger units of weight), and gallops (a unit of distance equal to the approximate distance an average pony can trot in a day on a clear track). |
| 52 | * ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'': |
| 53 | ** The Baravadans have "longsteps"; how long these units are is never explained. Also, John's Kansael doesn't understand any Earth measurements and can't tell him how distant Ehndris is from Ta'akan; he figures out that the distance is roughly comparable to that between London and Glasgow. On the other hand, the Hunter's world uses miles. |
| 54 | ** ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'': Problematic for a lot of people, since, with so many people from different worlds, hardly anyone has any measurements in common. For example, when Ringo is trying to provide Mindy with an estimate of how far he can reach with his [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], she's puzzled by his "feet" and "miles", and he ends up having to say "From here to the jump gate." |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 58 | * Infamously, ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'' uses parsecs as a measure of time. (They're actually a real world measure of distance.) Original WordOfGod had it that this was intended to be a deliberate mistake, to show that Han Solo wasn't as clever as he made out. Obi-Wan visibly winces at the line. A later FlipFlopOfGod came up with a scenario where a ship with more powerful engines could either take a riskier shortcut, or make rendezvous with a moving target before it had moved so far; thus it really was correct, in a complicated way. Since Obi-Wan still does visibly wince at the line, {{Fanon}} is pretty dismissive of the new explanation. ''Film/{{Solo}}'' would then canonically establish the "risky shortcut" explanation. |
| 59 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:'' Distance in space is measured in larger "jumps" and smaller "clicks" between them. In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2,'' the Guardians travel 47 "clicks" to the nearest jumping point to make one "jump" and thus escape the Sovereign fleet. Later in the film, Rocket and Yondu quickly do 700 "jumps" in a row, with Yondu complaining that it is unhealthy for a mammalian body to hop more than 50 "jumps" at a time. In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar,'' the unknown Asgardian who sends the distress signal says they are 22 "jump points" out of Asgard. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 63 | * ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' has many. The protagonist claims that Lilliput is 5,000 ''blustrugs'' in circumference (equal to about 12 British miles, by Gulliver's estimation) while Brobdingnag's capital is three ''glonglungs'' (about fifty four English miles) and two and a half wide. |
| 64 | * The ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' stories have their own take on the metric system. In the series' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom Wikipedia article]], distance units are as follows, from shortest to longest: sofad (11.68 inches), ad (10 sofads, 9.75 feet), haad (100 sofads, 10 ads, 32.44 yards), and karad (1,000 sofads, 100 ads, 10 haads, 36.92 miles). The difference is that the karad is based on the length of an arc-degree on the Barsoomian equator, whereas the real-life meter/metre was originally based on a ten-millionth of the length of the Earth's circumference from the Equator to the poles as measured through the Paris meridian. |
| 65 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' |
| 66 | ** The unit of magic is the ''thaum'', defined as the amount of magic needed to create a white pigeon or three standard-sized billiard balls. There is also the ''prime'', an attempt at a more rational unit created by the wizard Augustus Prime, which is defined as the amount of magic needed to move one pound of lead one foot. In a bit of a parody of how British scientists and academics act with Centigrade/Fahrenheit, it's mentioned in the Discworld Companion that any young wizard attempting to use primes will immediately face the question from his superiors "What's that in Old Money?" Perhaps because of this, thaums are nearly always cited as the unit in the books. (Thaums are also the fundamental particles of magic, as described in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'' and ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld''. Given the haphazard nature of Discworld metaphysics, it's not clear if these are two seperate meanings). Continuing the temperature parody theme, younger wizards use a "thaumometer" (sounds like "thermometer") to measure the strength of a magical field, while older wizards dismiss these modern gadgets and just lick their finger and hold it up -- which causes it to sprout a colored aura which lets them judge the background magic strength. |
| 67 | ** Parodied in ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'', in which the "editors" explain that they've helpfully translated the quantities in the recipe into metric since Nanny used "the very specialised unit of measure known as the 'some', as in 'take some flour and some sugar'". They also note that "some" is very flexible, in that "some pepper" is almost certainly less than "some butter", but may or may not be less than "some flour". |
| 68 | * On ''Literature/{{Gor}}'', distances are measured in "passangs", which are 7/10ths of a mile. |
| 69 | * In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the wizarding world uses a different system of [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Money money]] than the rest of the world, which consists of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. There are 17 Sickles in a Galleon, and 29 Knuts in a Sickle. As of December 5th, 2010, one Galleon is worth about 5 British Pounds, or 7.82 U.S. Dollars. |
| 70 | * ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The Numenoreans have the "ranga," which is roughly equivalent to a meter (approximately 38 inches). Two rangar makes an informal unit of measurement called "man-high," the height of the average Dunedain male (they were pretty tall). |
| 71 | * ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' |
| 72 | ** In ''Literature/MoonOverSoho'', Peter Grant is depressed that, despite being codified by UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton himself, the rules of magic have no proper unit of measurement. He decides to invent one and call it the "yap", a "yap" being the amount of magic need to make a small dog bark. Not just any small dog, mind you, but one ''specific'' small dog which had previously been exposed to magic and was known to react to it. |
| 73 | ** In ''The Furthest Station'', he has also defined a scale to measure the "intensity" of a ghost, from a vague feeling in the air to easily mistaken for a real person. The unit of measurement is the [[Series/BeingHumanUK annie]]. |
| 74 | * The ''Franchise/StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] uses the metric system--called Imperial measurements, confusingly enough--in the Republic, New Republic, and the Empire. Others may use other systems - the [[Literature/XWingSeries Adumari]] use a speed measurement called "keps", which are about .8 kilometers per hour. In ''Literature/OutboundFlight'', the Chiss use "visvia", which are about 1.6 kilometers. [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Units_of_measurement There are others.]] |
| 75 | * In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', the most common unit of measurement is a "tail-length", which is equivalent to about a foot. "Foxlength"—about a yard—is used occasionally as well, and on very rare occasions they'll use "kittenstep" (about an inch). |
| 76 | * In TaylorAnderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series, the [[CatFolk Lemurians]] will frequently measure distances in "tails", which equate almost exactly to yards. Apparently, an average adult Lemurian's tail is about a yard long. Tails are also the same on land and at sea. |
| 77 | * In Vitaliy Gubarev's children's story ''Journey to the Morning Star'', the [[HumanAliens Etherians]] measure time in tils, tiltils, soltans, and ladoses. A til is a hair longer than a second. A tiltil is a hundred tils. A soltan is a hundred tiltils. A lados (Etherian day) is eighteen soltans. It's not clear what they call a year, although they also measure orbital cycles, and one full orbit of their homeworld Etheri Tau around the star Lado is equal to 422 ladoses. |
| 78 | * ''Literature/StarCarrier'': The Turusch use units such as ''g'nyuu'm'' for time and ''lurm'm'' for distance. 12,000 ''lurm'm'' = 5 light-''g'nyuu'm''. Meanwhile ''g'ri'' is a unit used for mass, with several vessels in the ''America'' battlegroup described as massing more than 28,000 ''g'ri''. |
| 79 | * ''Literature/TheMartian'': Mark gets tired of calculating the power needs of his survival gear in kilowatt-hours per sol [[note]]Martian solar day[[/note]], so he dubs that unit the "pirate-ninja". {{Defictionalization}}: Andy Weir comments in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SemyzKgaUU this interview]] that the team monitoring the ''Curiosity'' rover has started referring to watt-hours per sol as milli-pirate-ninjas. |
| 80 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has its own system of measuring distances and areas: 10 inches make three hands, which make one foot. There are also paces, spans, miles and leagues. The series also uses new weight measurements, including 10 ounces to a pound, 10 pounds to a stone, etc. |
| 81 | * ''Literature/TheBrokenEarthTrilogy'': The AdvancedAncientHumans of Syl Anagist have standard units of measurement for generating, storing, and transferring their SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic. [[spoiler:However, their scientific approach overlooks that the magic comes from a planet that's alive, aware, and [[GaiasVengeance furious]].]] |
| 82 | * In ''Literature/TheColdMoons'', badgers measure distances in rough equivalents such as a "badger leap", "frog's leap", and "fox's leap". |
| 83 | * The FantasyWorldMap at the back of the ''Literature/{{Shannara}}'' novels has a scale that measures distance in "weeks"; presumably how far an average person can travel in a week. (Of course, later books, which introduce {{Magitek}} airships, have people traveling a distance of several weeks in a matter of hours.) |
| 84 | * ''Literature/TheScholomance'': MagicalSociety measures {{Mana}} in "lilim". Although any single wizard's mana generation and consumption are too unique to quantify, projects like the Scholomance's PocketDimension demand enough mana from enough different sources to average out a unit of measurement. |
| 85 | * ''Literature/TheLastDragonslayer'': Magical power in the series is measured in units called "shandars," named after the famous wizard Shandar. Devices called "Shandargraphs" can measure background levels of ambient magical energy, while "Shandarmeters" can measure the amount of shandars that certain acts of magic take to cast -- it takes about 200 shandars to make a toad burp and 1000 shandars to boil an egg. All children in the [=UnUnited=] Kingdom are tested for magical aptitude with a national average hovering around 150 shandars. Protagonist Jennifer rated at 159.3 shandars, while her apprentice Tiger got 162.8; neither is able to perform magic. |
| 86 | * TheVerse of Literature/TheCosmere has several inhabited worlds, each with [[MagicAIsMagicA its own magic system]] powered by some form of [[{{Mana}} Investiture]]. By the time period of ''Literature/TheSunlitMan'', interplanetary FantasticScience measures Investiture by Breath Equivalent Units -- a handy natural unit because, on ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}''[='=]s planet Nalthis, everyone is born with the same quantity of Investiture attached to their soul in the form of their Breath. |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 90 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'': According to its Website/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(1978_TV_series) article]], the only distance unit that wasn't an Earth name was "metron" (1 meter). However, the fact something had the same ''name'' as an Earth unit didn't mean it had the same ''meaning'' as the Earth unit: "microns", for example, were time units in BG (as opposed to distance units on Earth). |
| 91 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 92 | ** The Daleks measure time in "rels". Which, when we actually hear them using it, turns out to be exactly equal to one second. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Canonically]], a rel is 1.2 seconds. |
| 93 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead "Planet of the Dead"]]: The UNIT scientist discussing the episode's situation with the Doctor reveals that he named a unit of measurement for something after himself. |
| 94 | --->'''Malcolm:''' Furthermore, 100 Malcolms equals 1 Bernard.\ |
| 95 | '''The Doctor:''' And who's that, your dad?\ |
| 96 | '''Malcolm:''' Don't be silly. That's Franchise/{{Quatermass}}. |
| 97 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' is an excellent example, as apparently everyone in Peacekeeper space, as well as the Uncharted Territories, uses "klance" (temperature); "dench", "henta", "samat", "milon", "metron", "motra" and "zacron" (distance); "hetch" (speed); "micron", "microt", "arn", "solar day", "weeken" and "cycle" (time). The fact that everyone seems to use these, even outside Peacekeeper space, might just be due to the TranslatorMicrobes [[WildMassGuessing converting foreign measurements into units everyone can understand.]] (But then why aren't they just translated into units Chrichton/the viewers can understand?) |
| 98 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' had Barney spending a ''lot'' of money on suits, so much so that Future Ted told his kids that he spent a "crap-load" of money per year on suits. Later, when we see a flashback to Barney's job interview, he is offered "15 crap-loads" of money for a salary. This means that he spends roughly 1/15 the annual salary of an executive level position solely on suits, per year. |
| 99 | * ''Series/JamesMaysManLab'' parodied the BBC's tendencies for using objects to express units of measure (see the RealLife section), at one point measuring the ascent of two weather balloons in "Mount Everests" and "[[Series/OzAndJames Oz Clarkes]]". |
| 100 | * ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': In "Angels Revenge", Tom Servo's [[ThingOMeter shame-o-meter]] measures the shame of famous or talented actors doing a B-movie in Lawfords (after Peter Lawford, who was in that week's experiment). |
| 101 | * In ''Series/RedDwarf'', distances are measured in "gigooks", though how far this is is never indicated. |
| 102 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 103 | ** A "kellicam" ([=QelIqam=]) is a unit of length used by Klingons which is similar in magnitude to a kilometre. (It also sounds like the name of a web cam clandestinely set up in Kelly's room.) The Literature/StarTrekVanguard novels build on this, introducing the ''Qam'' and ''[=MenIqam=]''. |
| 104 | ** Bajoran units of measurement include hecapate, kellipate, kerripate, linnipate, tessijen and tessipate. |
| 105 | ** Computer capacity is measured in "kiloquads", which are very carefully never defined to avoid looking outdated when TechMarchesOn. |
| 106 | ** ''Star Trek'' has also had the forethought to come up with units for things that present-day science is physically incapable of measuring. "Cochranes" is apparently the metric unit for subspace flux (named for Zefram Cochrane, obviously). Most notably, [[FasterThanLightTravel warp field]] strength is measured often in thousands of cochranes for higher-end warp drives; each cochrane is the field strength needed for one multiple of light-speed. |
| 107 | ** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' is fond of using the unit "isoton" for mass and explosive yield. |
| 108 | * In ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' the time in the afterlife is measured in Jeremy Bearimy, since in both the bad place and the good place time is not linear, but cyclical and describes curves. |
| 109 | [[/folder]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[folder:Print Media]] |
| 112 | * Issue #33 of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' had the "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures", sent in by a 19-year-old Donald Knuth, who later became a computer scientist. The base unit was the thickness of ''Mad'' issue #26, or 2.263348517438173216473 millimeters. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 116 | * Early editions of ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' rated 'encumbrance' in 'coins'. Encumbrance, itself, was a vaguely-defined combination of actual weight and the awkwardness of carrying something. More recent systems use pounds, but the unit is still measuring ungainliness rather than weight proper. After all, density and molar weight are both secondary considerations to the principal question, "Is it worth looting this object?" |
| 117 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'', all ships and equipment are measured in [[SpaceX space tons]]. We know it's ''not'' the same as a "groundling" ton. UnitConfusion in some {{sourcebook}}s raises to the level when it's not clear even whether a space ton is a unit of mass or volume. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale This may indicate the authors don't get units]], but it may also be an [[SpaceIsAnOcean intentional reflection of real-life naval usage]]. Depending on nation, year, and the other words in the phrase, a naval measurement with the word "ton" in it may reference a weight, mass, volume, or even [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_tonnage a dimensionless quantity]]! |
| 118 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' the "ton" is a unit of volume, equal to the volume of 1000kg (a metric ton) of liquid hydrogen. |
| 119 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' measures the size of computer memory in "megapulses". That might be for the better, as when science fiction gives measurements for computer performance using proper units, it tends to get superceded by real-world technology way too soon. |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 123 | * ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'': "bios", "kios", and "mios" are units for distance used in the Matoran Universe. The distance units are as follows: |
| 124 | ** 1 bio = 4.5 feet = 1.37 meters |
| 125 | ** 1 kio = 1,000 bio = 4,500 feet/0.85 miles = 1.37 kilometers |
| 126 | ** 1 mio = 1,000 kio = 850 miles = 1,370 kilometers, used to measure distances between islands |
| 127 | [[/folder]] |
| 128 | |
| 129 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 130 | * Many video game engines use "subpixels" instead of traditional fractional numbers. The exact number of subpixels to a pixel vary, but it is usually [[UsefulNotes/PowersOfTwoMinusOne a power of two]], with 256 subpixels to one pixel being a common ratio. |
| 131 | * Likewise some video game engines uses a custom angle unit where one rotation equals a power of two, such as 2^16. |
| 132 | * MediaNotes/AdobeFlash uses twips internally. It's short for twentieths of a pixel. |
| 133 | * The force of the final [[QuicktimeEvent Climax move]] in ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' is measured in "Infinitons" (most other moves are measured in "Megatons" and "Gigatons"). SerialEscalation indeed, and it makes sense because the idea of different values of infinity is a real concept in mathematics]]. And you ''are'' using it to punch an omnipotent God in the face hard enough to make it fly from the outer rings to the center of the sun. Theoretical mathematics for theoretical deities. |
| 134 | * ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'': Kilamoles |
| 135 | * The majority of MediaNotes/{{game engine}}s use some sort of map unit to measure distances - for example, the Source Engine by Creator/ValveSoftware uses "Hammer Units", named after its map editor, Hammer. A MediaNotes/PhysicsEngine might also use its own unit. |
| 136 | * Whereas many [=MMOs=] will measure the distance of attacks (and thus, implicitly, all distances) in a unit that audiences would recognize, like meters, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' have "ilms", "fulms", "yalms", and "malms" as their units of measure. These may be "inches", "feet", "yards", and "miles", respectively, or else just have the same relations with each other as those real measurements do (without being the actual equivalent in length). [=XIV=] also uses onze, ponze, and tonze in approximate place of ounce, pound, and ton respectively, alongside [[{{Microts}} bells (hours) and moons (months)]]. |
| 137 | * The ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' games, much like ''Spelljammer'' as mentioned above, measure everything in kilotons, which thus can be a measure of volume, mass, or even ''structural integrity''--you might have a freighter hull with a mass of 400kT, which can carry 1000kT in volume of cargo, and has 650kT of structural integrity! |
| 138 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' series had a number of these. The only explicitly defined one was the bloit, which was defined as the distance the king's favorite pet can travel in one hour (Which caused much trouble when a king with a pet turtle died, leaving a successor with a pet leopard). Others, whose definition must be inferred rather than being explicitly defined, are the gloop (A measure of volume, apparently the amount of liquid that comes out when the container goes gloop) and the ugh (A measure of weight, apparently the amount of mass to make a man of a given size say "ugh" when lifting it). |
| 139 | * Many [[GameMod mods]] for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' make up their own units of measurement for energy. |
| 140 | ** [=IndustrialCraft's=] electricity is measured in [=EUs=] (Energy Units). |
| 141 | ** Buildcraft's energy is measured in [=MJs=] which, in this particular case, stand for Minecraft Joules. |
| 142 | ** Thaumcraft's magical energy is measured in [[GratuitousFrench Vis]] points. Or Aura and Flux points, as of Thaumcraft 3. |
| 143 | *** Back to Vis in [=TC4.=] Now introducing centivis! |
| 144 | ** EquivalentExchange measured items' worth in EMC points ([[UsefulNotes/{{Relativity}} Energy-Matter]] [[EnergyEconomy Currency]]). |
| 145 | ** Forge compatible liquids are measured in mB - milliBuckets, thousandth of a bucket. [[SubvertedTrope However]], a bucket is equal to one cubic meter (same as a single block's volume), making one millibucket equivalent to one liter. |
| 146 | ** All these mods tend to measure time in "ticks", with rates of production or consumption being defined in tooltips as "# per tick". A tick is one pass through the master loop of the game engine that updates everything, the ticking clock of the simulated world itself, and the shortest unit of time that makes any sense. A game-tick by default should be 1/20th of a second, but lag can cause it to become longer than that. Then redstone ticks are two game-ticks or 1/10th of a second. |
| 147 | ** Also RF (Redstone Flux) is used by plenty of mods. This is due to players wanting a more unified energy system and Thermal Expansion / Foundation (as the base is now called, after TE was split into it's own mod) providing the RF base code for others to use so many mods now use RF as their energy. |
| 148 | *** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by [=RotaryCraft=], which gives a conversion rate of 1 RF/t = 520 W and 1 RF = 26 J [[ShownTheirWork based on the power consumption of the Magma Crucible]], and itself relies on SI units (rad/s, Newton meters, watts, degrees Celsius, even teslas for magnetization). |
| 149 | * The speedometer in ''VideoGame/SuperTuxKart'' uses "tf/s". What are those? Tux feet per second? |
| 150 | * In ''VideoGame/AnarchyReigns'', upon starting a cage match, both characters' statistics are shown, which are Type (for example, Cyborg), Age, Height and Weight. If the player has GuestFighter VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} as one of the fighters, her height and weight statistics are displayed as "uwh" and "uww". They both have "(Magical Unit of Measurement)" next to them. These aren't in Bayonetta's game of origin, so these were likely invented as a means of filling in the height and weight for Bayonetta. |
| 151 | * ''VideoGame/StarControl 2'' references this: |
| 152 | ** Most of the time the alien races conveniently give you measurements and units in Earth units, but they apparently are doing this consciously. The Zoq-Fot-Pik mess up at one point: |
| 153 | -->'''Pik''': We hail from the green dwarf star at coordinates "ziggerfau-gerrrnuf, Ah-ah, Pahoy-hoy".\ |
| 154 | '''Zoq''': No, you idiot, in their coordinate system!\ |
| 155 | '''Pik''': Oh! Er... coordinates... |
| 156 | ** Likewise the Slylandro, who have had extremely limited interstellar contact, are unaware of how to convert to Earth time units and use units based on the rotation of their homeworld: "Dranhasa" and "Drahn". You never actually get to scan their planet in-game so you can't calculate the durations either, but they correspond roughly to "few years" and "several millenia" respectively. |
| 157 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' uses the Urist scale of temperature, where temperature in Urist is equal to temperature in Fahrenheit plus 9968. Water freezes at 10000 ºU. |
| 158 | * ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': The Riddler, [[SmugSnake proud]] [[InsufferableGenius genius]] that he is, claims that he invented an entirely new unit of measurement for pressure, called the "deadbat", purely for one of his crusher traps. Given his neurosis, it's hard to tell whether he's being actually serious about it[[note]]and if so, what is he basing his "scale" off of and how does it differentiate from [=kPa=] or psi?[[/note]] or he's just making it up to troll you. |
| 159 | * The world of Zemuria in the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' uses rege/rige for centimeter, arge for meter, selge for kilometer, and torim for tonne. |
| 160 | * ''VideoGame/MaxBlasterAndDorisDeLightningAgainstTheParrotCreaturesOfVenus'': Xavians measure temperature in ziknoks. Or the other standard units, yelpips. |
| 161 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' has the so-called "Turing Scale" for AIs. 1 Turing is defined as an AI that is indistinguishable from a human by the TuringTest. After the AI "VAST SILVER", measured at 1.38 Turing, [[AIIsACrapshoot went rogue]], regulations were put in place to limit AIs to reach at most 0.6 Turing. [[spoiler:However, out of necessity, both CYAN, the AI created by Project Firebreak, and GAIA, created by Project Zero Dawn, surpassed this limit. CYAN had around 0.61 Turing, but this had to be hidden, while GAIA surpassed the 1.38 Turing record. Of course, by the time GAIA was created, no one who could enforce consequences for breaking the 0.6 Turing limit was going to be around anymore.]] |
| 162 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' has done this in a few places. ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Xenoblade 2]]'' had characters measuring distance in "peds", which appear analogous to meters or feet (the name suggests they are based on the size of a specific Titan's foot). ''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 Xenoblade 3]]'' mentions "metris" and "cetris", which would again appear to be similar to meters and centimeters. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 166 | * The parsecs thing from ''Star Wars'' is parodied in ''WebAnimation/StarWreck'', where the "twist of a maggothole" is expressed as megaparsecseconds (Finnish original) or googol-fluxoms (English translation). Neither of those make ''any'' sense. |
| 167 | * ''WebAnimation/{{hololive}}'': after several incidents of the group's members oversleeping and missing their scheduled streams, Fubuki started defining "measurements of oversleeping". 1 "Mio" is oversleeping by 1 hour, 1 "Shion" is 2 Mios, and 1 "baba" ("old lady" in Japanese) is 2 Shions. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 171 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html introduces]] measurement of villainy in kilonazi. Presumably 1 Nz equals the output of an average (from [[TheFundamentalist "rabid"]] to [[SignedUpForTheDental "nodding freeloader"]]) member of National Socialistic party. The estimated evildoing level for a hypothetical offspring of [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Vil]] and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]] was 4.8±0.4 [=kNz=]. |
| 172 | * Grace in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-02-11 measures]] sadness in Seymours — using the "Jurassic Bark" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' as a baseline. |
| 173 | * ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' does this sometimes, including using "kiloweiners" at at least one point to measure shame/embarrasment. |
| 174 | * In ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'' Huoxing (Chinese Mars) has its own names for the silver and gold grams used by almost everyone in the solar system as currency (yinke and jinke), and they measure time in [[http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=451 huofen]] and [[http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=468 huoke.]] In the second series the isolationist planet Zytemonde measures distance in [[http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=468 "peters"]] instead of meters, though they still use SI prefixes. |
| 175 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'', the Old Tainish LanguageOfMagic has lots of units of measurement to describe things like the quantities of Aspects involved in a spell, the dimensions of how the spell manifests through the BackgroundMagicField, and the [[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch11/ch11_45.html volume of spellwork "code"]] for when it's enchanted into a First Material. Those units are quite important, since magic is very literal and {{Magic Misfire}}s, like misstating the origin point of a spell, tend to involve the caster getting messily dissolved. |
| 176 | * Many fantastic settings have things like Challenge Ratings, but ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20190111 a competing set]] of ''Monster Scales'', with antiquated, [[ScienceMarchesOn living]], and somewhat-antiquated-but-still-in-use varieties. The older measurement systems are even decried as ''Aristotlean'', which fits well when the name of one scale is the ''Perseus-Beowulf system''. |
| 177 | * In ''Webcomic/TwentyFirstCenturyFox'' [[http://www.hirezfox.com/21cf/d/20191202.html computer speeds]] have accelerated to the point where they've needed to add new metric prefixes, Zeppoflops[[note]]not to be confused with zettaflops[[/note]] were achieved in the 2040s while in the 2060s they've moved onto Harpoflops and Grouchoflops and are working on Yankovicflops. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 181 | * The ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' physics blog "Blog/WhatIf": |
| 182 | ** It uses [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/17/ "megayoda"]] as a unit of energy, in reference to [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/3/ a previous entry]] which calculated Yoda's energy output when he lifted Luke's X-Wing out of the swamp in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. |
| 183 | ** Unusual measurements are often found in the notes of "What If?" Giraffes make a regular appearance as a measure of height, and the author once described an object's mass in "yoctomoons". |
| 184 | * Complipedia used to use nobbs, jurbs, quabbles, fices, kas, fas, ras, and clawses to measure length, mass, force, temperature, time, time, time, and frequency, respectively. |
| 185 | * One anonymous user on 4chan introduced [[http://imgur.com/dhzzKVf hitlers as an SI unit]] (roughly equal to six million human deaths) to measure whether or not someone is truly "worse than Hitler". They even went on to show how you could ''[[RefugeInAudacity convert it to monetary value]]''. |
| 186 | --> '''Anon:''' When your bank nails you with a 35 dollar fine, you can confidently tell the teller they are currently fucking you over to the tune of 84 picohitlers and ask if they have a very tiny Auschwitz behind the counter. |
| 187 | * ''WebVideo/TwitchPlaysPokemon'' measures the difficulty of a specific boss in Wattsons, calculated as attempts taken to beat divided by 23, after the gym leader in question walled them out for over a day in ''Emerald''. A separate measure called [=WAHAs=] tales time into account; WAHA is calculated as (Wattson Rating)(Days taken)/1.55, set such that Wattson himself again had a rating of exactly 1. Entire Elite Fours have taken less than 1 Wattson, and as of the 25th run, only two other trainers (outside of Elite Four members, whose rankings are calculated differently) have broken the 1 Wattson barrier. |
| 188 | * In ''Podcast/TrialsAndTrebuchets'', magic is measured in Cows. |
| 189 | * ''Website/NationStates'' statistics are full of these, including "Pineapple Fondness Rating" for recreational drug use and "Milli-Stalins" for measurement of authorianism. |
| 190 | * The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' frequently deals in Humes, which is a unit used to measure baseline reality in the event of reality warping. They also measure religious faith in terms of "Akiva radiation" (using centiakivas). |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 194 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' had "cyber" as their prefix. But it has been pointed out this isn't consistent. |
| 195 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 196 | ** Pegasi measure the power of their wings in "wing power", which is apparently related not to their top speed but to the amount of wind they can generate at a fixed speed. A combined 800 wing power is both sufficient and necessary to generate a tornado powerful enough to suck water out of a lake and hurl it hundreds of yards into the air, all to get it to the Cloudsdale weather factory so they can [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows make storm-clouds for the rainy season]]. |
| 197 | ** Ponies and others occasionally measure time in "moons" -- which ''might'' just be another way of saying month, but this a world where the lunar orbit is perfectly synced with the sun, so who knows? It's basically a way for the writers to imply a great length of time (like a portal to another world that only opens for three days every thirty moons) without giving anything too specific. Moons apparently aren't converted into years, which implies that they don't have a set ratio of moons to years, but that still doesn't answer how long they are relative to anything.[[note]] And this is if you’re not trying to tie it into the lunar calendar which uses the phases of the moon to mark time, which would make it all the more confusing.[[/note]] |
| 198 | * ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'': Megabyte offhandedly mentions that Bob will erase if he gets within five bits of a magnet. |
| 199 | * In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', the official unit of measure for fecal mass is the [[Creator/KatieCouric couric]], which is approximately 2.5 pounds. |
| 200 | * The ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' of the eponymous metaseries have a staggering variety of not-at-all-internally-consistent Cybertronian units of [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Units_of_length length]] and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Units_of_time time.]] |
| 201 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' uses the [[Series/HappyDays fonzie]] to measure coolness. It's a metric unit, with the most commonly-seen scale being the megafonzie. |
| 202 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'', June is brewing a potion from a recipe that calls for a "smidgen" of dustroot. (Monroe claims a "smidgen" is "a bit less than a dash" and "a tad more than a pinch". |
| 203 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender:'' the alien characters mention that Lance's time in a hibernation healing chamber will be over in "thirty ticks." The humans ask how long a "tick" is compared to a "second." They then take out two stopwatches and "race" their respective measurements, [[FunnyBackgroundEvent all while Lance wakes up and stumbles around the room]]. For the record, a "tick" is slightly longer. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 207 | * The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot Smoot]], a measurement available in [[Website/{{Google}} Google Earth]]. |
| 208 | * Helen of Troy, the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman from UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, is said to be the face that launched a thousand ships (to rescue her when she was kidnapped). Thus, beauty is measured in millihelens — the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship.[[note]]''Literature/TheIliad'' has 1186 ships in the [[EpicCatalog Catalog of Ships]], making Helen worth just under 1.2 helens.[[/note]] This is, of course, blatantly false, since you can't use SI-prefixes with [[{{Pun}} Troy units]].[[note]]Actually, you ''can'', but no one actually does.[[/note]] |
| 209 | * Radiation is sometimes measured in the [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/radiation.php#id--Effects_of_Radiation--Banana_Equivalent_Dose Banana Equivalent Dose]], since the typical banana, containing trace amounts of radioactive potassium-40, exposes its consumer to 1/10 of a µSv (microsievert) of radiation. A normal broken-arm X-ray, for instance, is 10 bananas worth of radiation, or 1 µSv. Its scientific utility is limited; its real purpose is to put things in perspective for the radiation-averse public. |
| 210 | * In some sense, every measurement system started out this way. It's only when people start actually using it that it moves from "fantastic" to "mundane". For instance, the metric system started when the French decided to just abandon all the old systems and start over from scratch. |
| 211 | * Cooking often uses vague "feel" based terminology, such as "pinch", "dash", "smidgen" or "sprinkle", which is one of the reasons why it's often referred as being more of an art than a science. Even licensed cookbooks and the hosts of {{Cooking Show}}s will use such terminology. |
| 212 | * Expressions, like "a metric crapload" fall on this category. Such unit does not, of course, exist, but everyone has ''some'' image what it might be. |
| 213 | ** There was, however, a unit of measurement called the butt, equivalent to about 130 gallons for ale and 151 gallons of wine. This means you could claim to have a "buttload" of wine without using hyperbole. |
| 214 | * China, before Western-style timekeeping was introduced to them, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_timekeeping had its own timekeeping system]] that, among other things, uses separate sets of units depending on whether it is daytime or nighttime. |
| 215 | [[/folder]] |
| 216 |
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