History Main / AbstractScale

* Parodied in ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', where it is noted that an upcoming terrorist event, if it completes, would be "Nine Eleven times a hundred" - as is pointed out, that's 91,100 ("basically all the worst parts of the Bible"). Another is "Nine Eleven times a thousand" - 911,000. Kim Jong-Il described his ultimate plan, which involves simultaneous terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction across the world as "Nine Eleven times 2356," which nobody knows [[note]]It's 2,146,316[[/note]].

* An amateur sci-fi writer group on LiveJournal attempted to come up with "Brian's Scale" to measure the fame of sci-fi authors, based on number of non-self-publications, with units ranging from the [[Creator/KurtVonnegut Trout]] to the [[Creator/JohnScalzi Scalzi]] to finally the [[Creator/NeilGaiman Gaiman]].

* An archon in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' measured evil in terms of [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0489.html kilo-nazis]], with a baseline of a hypothetical offspring of [[Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Vil]] and [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]].

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler used to joke: "Do you know what is the difference between [[Characters/NaziGermany a goering and a goebbels]]? A goering is [[ChestOfMedals the amount of metal a man could pin on his chest]] and a goebbels is the amount of nonsense man could say in an hour." He often said the joke with both Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering present, to their great embarrassment.

* AdolfHitler used to joke: "Do you know what is the difference between [[{{Characters/NaziGermany}} a goering and a goebbels]]? A goering is [[ChestOfMedals the amount of metal a man could pin on his chest]] and a goebbels is the amount of nonsense man could say in an hour." He often said the joke with both Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering present, to their great embarrassment.

** Certain spells, as well as the creation of magic items, require using materials "worth" a certain number of gold pieces, despite the value of resources (as well as the gold they are equivalent to) being relative and subjective. For instance, a Raise Dead spell requires 5000 gp worth of diamonds, so better hope a new diamond mine opening doesn't cause prices to drop!

* According to Wit's poll at the end of ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'', Shalan Davar is exactly 77% more agreeable than her mistress, Jasnah Kholin.

* [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1716#comic This]] ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' measures anger in [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk miliHulks]], fear in [[BringMeMyBrownPants deciPantscraps]] and awkwardness in [[SelfDeprecation microWeiners]] (all in the "votey", the red button).

** From [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19479_the-6-most-mind-blowing-things-ever-discovered-in-space.html "The 6 Most Mindblowing Things Ever Discovered in Space"]]: "What they didn't know is that lightning could occur in the middle of goddamn space, with a force equal to a trillion lightning bolts, or to use the proper scientific terms, 50 million fucktons of electricity."

* The Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge Massachusetts is marked in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot smoots]], the height of Oliver R. Smoot. Originally painted, when the bridge was rebuilt the police actually asked that the marks be retained because it made it easy to note the specific location of an accident. Google has it as an option for distance measurement.

* Early on in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', there is frequent mention of an absolute system of measurement for pain in [[JustForPun Kill-o-Hurtz]]. Various medical instruments are rated according to how much pain they inflict. The concept hasn't been mentioned in a long time, however, as the ''Schlock Mercenary'' universe (if not the actual story) has [[CerebusSyndrome become somewhat more "serious"]].

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': "Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his {{power level}}?" [[MemeticMutation "It's over nine thousaaaaaand!!!"]]
** It would be one thing if the scouter was simply quantifying stored energy, but it seems to be able to quantify fighting effectiveness as evidenced by Goku's and Picolo's power levels registering higher after they take off their weighted clothing.
** At one point, one villain tells another to take off their scouter, since the Z-Fighters can change their power levels pretty much at will.
*** The Power Levels are deliberately useless; Word of God was that it was intended to show that one can't use cold calculation to predict how a fight would go, and to show the inherent flaw in basing assumptions on only raw power while ignoring skill and determination.

* Blog/DeadcodersReviews used Aelita as a measurement of Trauma and Hollywood as a measure of makeup

* Beauty has been measured in [=milliHelens=] (the amount of beauty needed to [[TheTrojanWar launch a single ship]]) in ''Literature/TheRebelAngels'', a novel by Robertson Davies. This system was invented by Cambridge mathematician W.A.H. Rushton; the term was possibly first suggested by Creator/IsaacAsimov. ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', however, pointed out that you shouldn't mix metric prefixes with [[{{Pun}} Troy units]].

* ''Series/{{MST3K}}'' had the "shame-o-meter" for measuring the amount of shame emanating from washed-out actors in a 70s ''Series/CharliesAngels'' rip-off movie. It measured in (Peter) Lawfords. Jim Backus registered well into the giga-Lawford range.

* DeadcodersReviews used Aelita as a measurement of Trauma and Hollywood as a measure of makeup

* Borderline example, since it measures magic, which doesn't actually exist in the real world anyway, from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
-->A thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.
** Naturally, it is measured by thaumometers. Some early books measure magic in "Primes", the amount of magic needed to move one pound of lead one foot. ''[[UniverseCompendium The Companion]]'' eventually [[AllThereInTheManual explained]] that the Prime was the metric measurement, and the thaum is the "imperial" one. Wizards tending to be hidebound traditionalists, the Prime never caught on.

* Rather common in roleplaying games featuring magic or anything like it. In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' your basic magical ability can come from Intelligence, which is at least something people seriously ''attempt'' to measure in real life, but also Wisdom, which has something to do with good moral sense, or maybe attunement to nature if you're a druid, or the ability to see the broad picture but anyway divination spells are based on it. The third potential stat tied to casting spells is Charisma, which is both the measure of one's force of will and how pretty they are.

* Webcomic/{{Paranatural}} has the [[http://paranatural.net/chapter-2-page-4/ international scale of creepy]] to measure PJ's smile.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' once had a device that measured coolness in [[HappyDays mega-fonzies]]. There was also the funkometer for smells and a device that measured the accuracy of mad beats laid down by the BeastieBoys.
** For the record, they were laying it down with an 80% Success rate.
-->"I believe that qualifies as "ill," at least from a technical standpoint."

A system of measurement for something that doesn't seem like it could be measured in discrete units in the first place. Almost always used for humor. BrokeTheRatingScale may invoke this when it gets silly. This is presumably how you tell if something is TwentyPerCentMoreAwesome.

* Certain fans on the internet have made the [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson]], a unit of [[OffTheRails plot derailment]], particularly of [[TabletopGames tabletop RPGs]]. It's creation was inspired the story of [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson Old Man Henderson]], the man who "won" TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu (which is practically impossible). Henderson was a highly eccentric (and slightly psychotic) PlayerCharacter devised to get back at a particularly agitating GM in the [[CrazyAwesome most imaginable ways possible]]. His exploits include: burning a Shoggoth, stealing a yacht from a Hastur cult, dropping said yacht on a Cthulhu cult's penthouse (and starting a cultist gang war), ''The'' tanker truck incident, and "Hell on Ice". Henderson's exploits included a surprising number of counts of arson, most accidental, and accidentally killing a lot of people, including the every other player's characters at least once, and incidentally, everybody who could link Henderson to a crime.

--> '' '''BEVAMETER:''' '' The distance a drink coaster, attached to the bottom of a wet glass, will travel before it falls back to earth.
--> '' '''CRAVAMETER:''' '' 3.72 inches, the proper distance between the ends of a tied tie.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Grace refers to "Seymours", [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-02-11 a unit of measure for sadness]] using the "[[TearJerker Jurassic Bark]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' as a baseline.