# Coolest units of measurement **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2013, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542 "2013-06-21T06:35:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/161 "2013-12-31T10:39:03Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > … > I have never seen a temperature quoted in Réaumur nor an instrument calibrated in it. Wikipedia says: “Its only modern use is in the measuring of milk temperature in cheese production. It is used in some Italian dairies making Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses and in Swiss Alp cheeses. In the Netherlands the Réaumur thermometer is used when cooking sugar syrup for deserts and sweets.” I cannot verify. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/162 "2014-01-02T17:42:41Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Haven’t read the whole thread, but peppers are rated in Scoville units, also devised by a pharmacist. The hottest breed varies from year to year, and last I heard, there’s a commercially available pepper that has topped 1 million units. :eek: > > Pure capsaicin is 15 million units. Cool. I never knew there was an actual measure for this. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tootingkhamen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tootingkhamen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tootingkhamen)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/163 "2014-01-03T10:42:34Z")
My personal favourite unit of measurement is the ‘warp’ of herring. One warp == four herring. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/164 "2017-12-12T00:20:58Z")
Zombie time: A peculiar (and inexact) unit of time measurement is the _wake-up,_ used strictly in prisons and the military. It refers to a fraction of a day otherwise devoted to out-processing (before release from incarceration, discharge from service, or transfer to a new duty station). It is traditional for short-timers to answer the question “How long you in for?” with “x days and a wake-up.” ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/165 "2017-12-12T00:57:52Z")
When I was a student there was the microK----, the unit of obnoxiousness, named after Dr. K-----, one of the profs. One full K----- was unthinkable. The microcentury is, IIRC, 53 minutes, about the length of a lecture. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/166 "2017-12-12T03:44:57Z")
ignosecond: I first heard it defined as the interval of time between slamming the locked car door shut and your brain screaming that the keys are in the ignition but can also be roughly defined as the time between the moment one does something inherently stupid and the moment one realizes that it’s too late to stop the results of that action. Alcohol has some interesting measurements: for beer there is the snorkel, nip, bomber,growler, anker firkin, kilderkin among others. For spirits, there is a hint, a drop, a dash, a pony, a splash, a pony, a jigger, a hooker, a snit, a jack. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/167 "2017-12-12T05:28:01Z")
Four years and four pages, and I’m surprised no one has mentioned a [Sagan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sagan), equal to at least four billion of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/168 "2017-12-12T06:23:58Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > ignosecond: I first heard it defined as the interval of time between slamming the locked car door shut and your brain screaming that the keys are in the ignition but can also be roughly defined as the time between the moment one does something inherently stupid and the moment one realizes that it’s too late to stop the results of that action. Well, there was the time one of our flying instructors put on a parachute and then, the weather being cold, put on a jacket on top of that. Someone pointed out that, if he actually had to bail out, that might not end well. Instructor agreed, that would certainly be an “Oh shit!” moment. So that could hypothetically be a real use for the ignosecond measure. (This would be from the time one tries to pull the ripcord until the time one realized it’s underneath your jacket.) ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/169 "2017-12-12T15:26:57Z")
I didn’t see this thread four years ago, but here’s one of my favorites. A measure of sheet resistance, the electrical resistance of a layer of metal, expressed in: ohms per square ---
**Author:** ![Graymalkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@Graymalkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graymalkin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/170 "2017-12-13T04:20:20Z")
I pick up after my dog and refer to the “blivets” I then bring home and sometimes forget to throw them in the trash and they remain in my running pants pocket too long. I got the term from a colleague while working for Columbia University’s alumni association when she told me that a blivet is 5 pounds of shit in a three pound bag. I use the term all the time! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/171 "2017-12-13T04:39:42Z")
I just did a piece of art where I drew the contents of “Grandpa’s Hardware Junk Drawer” spread out on a pencilled grid. Inspired by this thread, my grid was measured out in [ciceros](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero_(typography)). C’mon, you know, ciceros! “1⁄6 of the Historical French inch, which was divided into 12 Didot points”. I was always intrigued by them, because you could set up a QuarkXpress document in inches, millimeters, picas or ciceros. Yet I could never find a printing professional that remembered ever using ciceros. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/172 "2017-12-14T03:37:39Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > My favorite rural Georgia farmer unit. Quite variable in actual units but on the other hand rather precise and useful if implemented properly. > > A “look”. > > Okay guys, you get on the main highway here in front of my farm. You go 4 “looks” south then you take that highway to the left. Then its another 6 or so “looks” then you take a right and go about 3 “looks”. You’ll then be at farmer Jone’s place and you can talk to him about XYZ. > > Gee thanks Farmer Smith. But WTF is a “look”? > > A “look” is when you get on a road. Look down it as far as you can seen down the road. Maybe its a distance hill. Maybe a large curve. A bridge. A tunnel. Just a long assed way down the road. Keep that specific point in mind. When you get there you’ve gone one “look”. Now look and see where the point is that defines the next “look” distance. Repeat as needed. > > I got specific and complicated directions using “looks” once. Our team kept track of “looks” as we wandered rural Georgia. We go to where we were going and we were all “well, whata you know. It fucking works. And it works pretty good” > > Never seen it before or since. Maybe that Georgia farmer was just ahead of his time. > > True story. Honest to God. That is cool! I need to remember that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542/173 "2017-12-14T21:08:18Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > ignosecond: I first heard it defined as the interval of time between slamming the locked car door shut and your brain screaming that the keys are in the ignition but can also be roughly defined as the time between the moment one does something inherently stupid and the moment one realizes that it’s too late to stop the results of that action. > … Yes, the zombie is picking up speed. I first heard your unit called the “ohnosecond.” As in “Oh No!” Commonly measured just after you’ve clicked [Send] on an email and \*then \*looked at the addressee(s). :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-units-of-measurement/661542.md?page=8)