Human beings measure things. It makes us feel smart and helps us understand our surroundings. Granted, it can sometimes get out of hand – just what, exactly, is the deal with the Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded terror alerts? But that’s an exception, not the rule. Some of the scales we use to parse, codify, and compartmentalize the world are downright cool (and useful, if you ever fall into a coma during a hurricane when Earth is about to be hit by an asteroid). Here are six of the coolest scales.
– Lucas Graves
credit L-Dopa
LAB BIOSAFETY LEVELS What it measures: Biolab protocols
How it works: Each of the four levels spells out procedures based on the infectiousness of the germs present. BSL-1 covers high school lab rules like hand-washing and no eating. BSL-4, reserved for nasty airborne agents like Ebola, means air locks and X Files-grade hazard suits.
credit L-Dopa
SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE What it measures: Hurricane strength
How it works: The five "categories" meteorologists talk about represent the probable amount of damage to man-made structures, based on wind speed and storm surge. When you see small cars floating behind the Gore-Tex-encased reporter screaming into the mic as he’s blown away, that’s Category 5.
credit L-Dopa
UDDEN-WENTWORTH SCALE What it measures: Particle size
How it works: Geologists love classifying dirt. Smaller than about one ten-thousandth of an inch, you’ve got clay. Then you’ve got your sand, followed by your gravel, and finally, of course, boulders. Still, it’s pretty much all dirty.
credit L-Dopa
GLASGOW COMA SCORE What it measures: Level of consciousness
How it works: Comatose patients get a score along each of three axes: eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. Lack of response to anything at all, even to pain, adds up to 3; anything less than 8 means coma. Carrots score a 3, just to give you some context.
credit L-Dopa
MOHS HARDNESS SCALE What it measures: Strength of a mineral
How it works: Developed in 1812, Friedrich Mohs’ method rates hardness by staging catfights between minerals, from talc (1) to diamond (10). A rock ranks higher than substances it can scratch and lower than ones that can scratch it. As for real catfights, a finger-nail has a hardness of about 2.5.
credit L-Dopa
TORINO IMPACT HAZARD SCALE What it measures: Asteroid impact risk
How it works: Named after the Italian city where eggheads ratified it in 1999, a Torino score gauges the odds that a near-Earth object will hit us and the damage it would cause. A space rock that rates a 10 - paging Michael Bay - comes around only once every 100 millennia or so.
START
What’s inside: Premium Unleaded
Disparate Measures
