Ludicrous Precision: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Data:''' And for a time I was tempted by her offer.<br />

'''Picard:''' (worried) How long a time?<br />

 

For whatever reason, very intelligent people in fiction are incapable of summarizing anything. No matter what you ask them, you'll get [[Literal Genie|exactly what you asked for]], with ''way'' more detail than is necessary. No robot will ever say "it's pretty darned likely"; they say "There is a 99.9875653 percent chance of success".

This is very frequent in [[Exact Time to Failure]] counts; this is largely because the more figures are shown, the faster the timer appears to be counting down. This, of course, lets the hero stop the timer at [[Always Close|exactly 0:00:01]].

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime & Manga ==

 

 

== Card Games ==

 

 

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* Macaulay Culkin's character in ''[[The Pagemaster]]''.

{{quote| '''MCP:''' There's a 68.71 percent chance you're right.<br />

'''Dillinger:''' Cute. }}

* Much of Fergus Falls' dialogue in ''[[Wrongfully Accused]]''.

 

 

== Literature ==

* Played with in ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', when Bruno estimates that there are "about a thousand and four" pigs in the field outside. When told he can't possibly be sure about the "four" part, he insists that that's the ''only'' part he's sure about--there are four pigs right under the window, but he can't be nearly as precise about how many are in the rest of the field.

{{quote| Many stories are told of Zaphod Beeblebrox's journey to the Frogstar. Ten percent of them are ninety-five percent true, fourteen percent of them are sixty-five percent true, thirty-five percent of them are only five percent true, and all the rest of them are told by Zaphod Beeblebrox. }}

* Used for the opposite effect in ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''. When asked by the judge during Tom Robinson's trial, Mayella Ewell gives her age as "nineteen-and-a-half." The fact that a nineteen-year-old still thinks of her age in halves serves to show that she doesn't get out as much as she should.

* In dialogue (internal or with other characters), [[Keith Laumer]]'s [[Bolo|Bolos]] always measure things down to hundredths of a second or less.

{{quote| this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter minutes past one o'clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D. 1851)}}

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': K-9 is prone to this, even needing to be snapped out of infinite repetition when a percentage goes into "three... three... three... three..."

** KITT would do this in the original too (though rather less ludicrously), by giving distances to the tenths place, correcting times if they were a minute off, etc.

** Everything that has a power level (shields, hull integrity, and so forth) has at least one digit past the decimal point. This is kind of odd, really, since the hull is either keeping the air in or it isn't.

*** Practically everything in Star Trek is reinforced by force fields, including the starship hull and structural support materials. Even if something manages to punch a hole straight through the hull, a force field can be erected over the breach to keep atmosphere and people from flying out. However, if the physical damage becomes too severe, then eventually the structure itself will become too weak for the force field to remain effective.

** Spock did this all the time, even in situations where the precision of his calculation was obviously not just unnecessary, but impossible. In "The Enterprise Incident", for instance: "They should commence firing at us within the next... twelve point seven seconds". From when you started talking, Spock? From when you stopped? Huh?

** In "Errand of Mercy":

'''Kirk:''' That's a... pretty close approximation.<br />

'''Spock:''' I endeavor to be accurate. }}

{{quote| '''Sisko;''' It's been a long time.<br />

'''Solok:''' Ten years, two months, five days.<br />

'''Solok:''' Of course I do. But humans are often irked by such precision. Especially the more emotional humans. }}

** And odd variation occurs in "Imperfection". Tuvok scans a destroyed Borg Cube and announces the presence of approximately 37 Borg drones. Paris immediately states that such an even number does not sound like an approximation. Tuvok then has to clarify that he's not counting bodies, but ''body parts''.

** Bashir became insufferable for this after it was revealed he was genetically engineered. Even his actor hated it. Most notably, he provides the likelihood of the success of the Dominion in the Dominion War to two decimal places. For reference, the Dominion War was a massive conflict involving four of the most powerful organizations in the galaxy. He also used [[Ludicrous Precision]] to calculate travel times in a damaged ship faster than the computer could, despite it making no sense for him to be able to calculate this without being some kind of warp-travel/impulse-travel expert, never mind it being an enemy ship they barely understood the workings of in the first place. It was even lampshaded by characters in-universe how unnatural he was being. It didn't stop the writing staff from continuing to do it, however.

** Heck, the whole "stardate" system was merely another opportunity for writers to ''sound'' like they were indulging in this trope.

** Mocked by [[Eddie Izzard]]. "According to these instruments, we're all going to die in .2 of a second. Oh, should I have said that earlier?"

** Sheldon Cooper. Ask him a simple question and you'll get a lengthy dissertation, mostly on how wrong you are. And sometimes he'll give it to you even if you don't ask. Often, said dissertation merely explains how the question is badly formed or [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|predicated on erroneous assumptions]].

** While Sheldon is the worst offender, the other characters (except Penny) do this, too. Leonard discusses a kiss with Leslie: "Well, the Earth didn't move. Except for the 383 miles it was going to anyway."

{{quote| '''Reid:''' With this type of criminal, all are angry, most are male, and few, if any, are ever caught.<br />

'''Elle:''' Few, if any? You don't have the statistics on that?<br />

 

== New Media ==

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* The funny thing is, in tabletop games, one often can calculate the odds of success to a very high precision (though its still not perfect since even well-made dice have slight imperfections).

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Played for laughs in ''[[Metal Wolf Chaos]]'' where Jody flat-out ''guessing'' it will take the Alcatraz Cannon four minutes to recharge turns out to be accurate to the nearest hundredth of a second.

{{quote| '''Computer:''' Once the Divalium crystal has been repaired, our electrical system re-established, and the engines fired, I am 97.2 percent certain [that the spacecraft can continue on its way].<br />

'''Roger Wilco:''' Why only 97.2 percent?<br />

** And in the case of temperature: "Regice cloaks itself with frigid air of negative 328 degrees Fahrenheit." In Japan, it's -200 degrees Celsius.

* In ''Spirited Heart'', when demon [[Child Prodigy]] Hade gets selected to become a scientist at the King's Royal Laboratory, one of the teachers notes that she is at least forty years younger than the previous youngest researcher. She corrects the teacher by saying that she's the youngest by exactly "Forty-seven years, six months, and two weeks".

** Sho Minamimoto. Seriously, the incantation he uses for his ultimate attack is reciting 156 digits of pi, rightfully earning him, at least at time of writing, the page image for [[Mouthful of Pi]].

** Konishi also gives the exact amount of time he's late to a meeting when he's first introduced.

 

== Web Comics ==

{{quote| '''Agatha:''' ''(about an overdose of [[Psycho Serum|funny water]])'' I believe another forty-five point three seconds, and I would have ''exploded'' or something.}}

* [http://www.jasonlove.com/cartoons/00605-funny-cartoons-baby-age.gif This panel] from Jason Love's cartoons.

 

{{quote| "Calm down, Dnerd, it's just playacting."<br />

"Playacting? Playacting is a compound intransitive verb..." }}

{{quote| '''Daggett:''' A bug... two bugs... four bugs... ''(explodes out through the floor)'' AAAAH! 4023 BUGS!}}

{{quote| '''Pinkie Pie:''' She's ahead by half a nose! Or maybe three-quarters of a nose! No, about 63.7% of a nose! ''(sees Spike staring at her)'' ...Roughly speaking.}}

* The ''Star Trek TOS'' example above is spoofed in ''[[Muppet Babies]]'', where Gonzo (as Spock) takes so long to say the fractions on the odds that he has to be cut off by someone.