Basic Trope: A piece of measuring equipment finds something so powerful that it can’t get a reading.
- Straight: When the Thing-O-Meter is pointed at a Negative Space Wedgie, it maxes out to 9999999 immediately, and can’t get a reading with any more detail than that.
- Exaggerated: Readings Blew Up the Scale
- Downplayed: The readings reach 9999999 slowly, and flicker between that and 9999998.
- Justified:
- They are measuring Crystal Dragon Jesus, and as it is infinitely powerful, any finite method of measuring it's power is doomed to fail.
- The Negative Space Wedgie more than exceeds the ship's designated Red Zone. question
- Inverted: The readings are suspiciously well-placed in the scale.
- Subverted:
- The scientists using the Thing-O-Meter immediately panic when they test the Negative Space Wedgie with it… because it gave a scientifically impossible result of zero,
- The scientists shrug, and switch to a bigger scale.
- Double Subverted:
- After some more tests and calibrations, they find this is because the maxes it out immediately and causes an overflow error.
- The thing-o-meter is designed for measuring direct power, and this Negative Space Wedgie is ~1e99 alternating at 9THz with an offset of zero.
- They go through 3 larger scales before finally giving in.
- Parodied:
- The meter goes off the scale for even the smallest increase in power.
- “The readings are off the charts! I need bigger charts!”
- Zig Zagged:
- One scientist develops a method for getting an approximate reading of things off the scale, by timing how long it takes for regular scanners to max out.
- It's only a small blip on the Thing-O-Meter, but as the scale is aimed at measuring the energy outputs of galaxies, even a tiny blip is really, really impressive for an object of that size.
- Averted: Nothing goes off the charts because there are no charts in the first place.
- Enforced: “Well, I can’t think of any units to use…so let’s just say they are really, REALLY high.”
- Lampshaded: “Why do we even use these scanners anymore?
- Invoked: The scientists deliberately use a smaller scale than usual when publishing their results, to make the Negative Space Wedgie seem more impressive.
- Exploited: A nearby merchant offers to sell the scientists a thing-o-meter that CAN measure the Negative Space Wedgie, after seeing them try and fail to do so.
- Defied:
- “You idiots, you’re reading it wrong! Let me do it!”
- “Don’t bother picking that scanner up: it’ll just blow up. Trust me."
- Discussed: “It appears there is more to this wormhole than is dreamt of in our philosophy… or dreamt of by our scanners.
- Conversed: “The writers are never happy to give a nice whole number to these things, are they?
- Implied: We never see the charts or hear them being talked about, but the facial reaction of the scientist looking at them tells us everything we need to know.
- Played for Drama: The scale represents something that means certain death if either a given reading or its end are reached, and protagonists watch in despair how its readings are increasing with no end.
Back to Readings Are Off the Scale.
