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In some cases, especially [[Science Fiction]] or [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]], 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.
 
Compare [[Hiroshima Asas a Unit of Measure]], where a unit is scaled to a specific object. See [[Microts]] for units relating to time.
{{examples}}
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Though it's never named, there obviously is a unit to measure one's strength in ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]''. In the games it's often referenced as B.P. (Battle Power). In this system, the average human would rate 2-3. By the middle of ''Dragonball Z'', the numbers we're dealing with are in the 'millions'. So yeah.
** And as we all know, [[Readings Are Off the Scale|over 9000]] of this unit is already... a lot.
* In ''[[Trigun]],'' distances are measured in "Iles," which are just "miles" with one letter removed.
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== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|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.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
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* 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 (Literature)|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 (Literature)/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 (Literature)|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).
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' (1970's): according to its [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|article]], the only distance unit that wasn't an Earth name was "metron" (1 meter).
* In ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'', a "kellicam" is a unit of length used by Klingons which is similar in magnitude to a kilometre.
** Bajoran units of measurement include hecapate, kellipate, kerripate, linnipate, tessijen and tessipate.
** Computer capacity is measured in "kiloquads", which are very carefully never defined to avoid looking outdated when [[Tech Marches On]].
** ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|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).
* In ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', distances are measured in "gigooks", though how far this is is never indicated.
* 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 MaysMay's Man Lab (TV)|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 (Magazine)|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).
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
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** Actually the World Factbook is mainly a public resource not a policy maker's resource, making the prioritizing of user-friendliness more understandable.
** US news channels frequently give lengths and areas in terms of (American) football fields. They never specify whether or not they're including the end-zones, which is a significant difference, making this more confusing than clarifying.
* The explosive power of very large explosions is measured in [[Hiroshima Asas a Unit of Measure|Hiroshimas]], or occasionally in multiples of the sum total of all explosives used during [[World War Two]].
* Television meteorologists will give sizes of hail in much the same way, generally using sports equipment, usually ranging from golf ball-sized to softball-sized hail. One anecdotal case from the Ozarks had a person calling in about "cellphone sized hail" that had newscaster trying to guess whether they were thinking tiny flip-phones or huge Blackberries.
* The [[wikipedia:Smoot|Smoot]], a measurement available in [[Google Earth]].
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The force of the final [[Quick Time Event|Climax move]] in ''[[Bayonetta]]'' is measured in "Infinitons" (most other moves are measured in "Megatons" and "Gigatons"). [[Serial Escalation]] indeed, and possible [[Fridge Brilliance]] since the idea of different values of infinity is a real concept in mathematics. Or, y'know [[Rule of Cool|it just sounds cool.]]
* ''[[Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story (Video Game)|Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'': Kilamoles
* The Source Engine uses "Hammer Units"
** Majority of [[Game Engine|game engines]] use some sort of map unit to measure distances. A [[Physics Engine]] might also use its own unit.
* Whereas many MMOs will measure the distance of attacks (and thus, implicitly, all distances) in a unit that audiences would recognize, like meters, ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy XIV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIV]]'' 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).
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html introduced] measurement of villainy in kilonazi. Presumably 1 Nz equals the output of an average (from [[The Fundamentalist|"rabid"]] to [[Signed Up for Thethe Dental|"nodding freeloader"]]) member of National Socialistic party. The estimated evildoing level for a hypothetical offspring of [[101 Dalmatians (Disney)|Cruella de Vil]] and [[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|Sauron]] was 4.8±0.4 kNz.
* Grace in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-02-11 measured] sadness in Seymours -- using the "Jurassic Bark" episode of ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' as a baseline.
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' does this sometimes, including using "kiloweiners" at at least one point to measure shame/embarrasment.
 
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** "Nanosecond" is the most likely example, given that in one episode, Enzo complains that studying could take "One whole second" in much the same way we could say "This is taking forever!"
** When Dot gets partially deleted by a magnet, Phong tells Bob that he doesn't have a lot of time to save her: "You don't have all second you know!"
* ''[[Cyberchase (Animation)|Cyberchase]]'' had "cyber" as their prefix. But it has been pointed out this isn't consistent.
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|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.
 
{{reflist}}
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