Fantastic Measurement System: Difference between revisions

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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* When ''[[Incredible Hulk|]]'': 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.
* The various ''[[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."
 
== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', 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.
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' [[Alternate Universe Fic]] ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11574569/1/Dodging-Prison-and-Stealing-Witches-Revenge-is-Best-Served-Raw Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches]'' by "LeadVonE", the Wizarding world has two units of measurement for magical power: the Merlin, equal to the amount of magic that can be stored in one hundred grams of iron or about one kilogram of body mass, and the Flamel, defined as a constant flow of one Merlin per second; in a form analogous to watts and wattage, the usage is called flamelage.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' 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) long and two and a half wide.
* On ''[[Gor]]'', distances are measured in "passangs", which are 7/10ths of a mile.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' ''[[Barsoom]]'' stories. According to [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Barsoom|article]], distance units were as follows:
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** 1 ad = 9.75 feet
** 1 haad = .3692 miles
** 1 karad = 36.92 miles
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', 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 5, 2010, one Galleon is worth about 5 British Pounds, or 7.82 U.S. Dollars.
* The [[Star Wars 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 [[X Wing Series|Adumari]] use "keps", which are about .8 kilometers. In ''[[Outbound Flight]]'', the Chiss use "visvia", which are about 1.6 kilometers. [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Units_of_measurement There are others.]
* In ''[[Moon Over Soho]]'', Peter Grant is depressed that, despite being codified by [[Isaac Newton]]<ref>minor [[Fridge Logic]] moment there because Newton was an egotist of unparalleled proportions and would not have hesitated to invent a unit and name it after himself if it were real</ref> himself, the rules of magic have no proper unit of measurement. He decides to invent one and call it the a "yap", a "yap" being the amount of magic need to make a small dog bark.
* Similarly, the ''[[Discworld]]'' 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.
** ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' uses "splitting the thaum" as a fantastic version of splitting the atom, implying the thaum is actually a real distinct particle or entity rather than just an arbitrary measurement.
** Continuing the temperature parody theme, younger wizards use a "thaumometer" (sounds like "thermomemter") 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 coloured aura which lets them judge the background magic strength.
* In ''[[Warrior Cats]]'', 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).
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* [[Played for Laughs]] in the 1985 humor book ''[[Science Made Stupid]]'' by Tom Weller, in which a table in its appendix lists such units as the "arg" (the unit of work done incorrectly), the "galumph" (unit of waste motion), the "lumpen" (unit of resistance to getting out of bed in the morning), and the "melvin" (unit of temperature, "as measured from absolutely perfect to absolutely awful"). A separate table of conversions for weights and measures on the same page listed equivalencies such as "325 cubebs = 1 furbish; 6 furbishes = 1 nautical smile; 20 nautical smiles = 1 minor league; 3 minor leagues = 1 major league" and "24 carrots = 1 pickelweight; 30 pickelweights = 1 tuna; 1000 tuna = 1 short ton; 1.37 short tons = 1 tall ton".
 
=== [[Live Action TVMagazines]] ===
* "The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measurements", described in ''[[Mad]]'' #33, is largely similar to the metric system, but with different base units. The standard unit of length, the potrzebie, is defined as the thickness of ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' #26 ([[Ludicrous Precision|2.263348517438173216473 mm]]).
 
== [[MagazinesLive-Action TV]] ==
* [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|The original ''Battlestar Galactica'' (1970s)]]: according to its [[wikipedia:Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|article]] at [[The Other Wiki]], the only distance unit that wasn't an Earth name was "metron" (1 meter).
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', a "kellicam" is a unit of length used by Klingons which is similar in magnitude to a kilometre.
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* The Daleks of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' measure time in "rels".
** Which, when we actually hear them using it, turns out to be exactly equal to one second.
* ''[[James May's Man Lab|James Mays Man Lab]]'' parodied the BBC's tendencies for using objects to express units of measure (see the [[Real Life]] section), at one point measuring the ascent of two weather balloons in "Mount Everests" and "[[Oz and James|Oz Clarkes]]".
* ''[[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 [[Translator Microbes]] [[Wild Mass Guessing|converting foreign measurements into units everyone can understand.]]
 
== [[Magazines]] ==
* "The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measurements", described in ''[[Mad]]'' #33, is largely similar to the metric system, but with different base units. The standard unit of length, the potrzebie, is defined as the thickness of ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' #26 (2.263348517438173216473 mm).
 
== [[Oral Tradition]] ==
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* ''[[Cyberchase]]'' had "cyber" as their prefix. But it has been pointed out this isn't consistent.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'', pegasi measure the power of their wings in "wing power" which apparently is a measure for their ability to create wind by flying really fast than the speed itself.
* In an episode of ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]'', 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".
 
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