Saturday 22 March 2014

The Victor Scale explained...

Everyone's heard of the Richter Magnitude Scale, developed by Charles Francis Richter, in 1935, to assign a single number to quantify the energy that is released during an earthquake.

However, not many people are aware of the Victor Scale used to quantify the sudden release of energy during a seismic rant at some unfairness or lack of service. The scale is named after the fictional character Victor Meldrew from the BBC TV series One Foot in the Grave. The identity of the originator of this measuring scheme must remain anonymous, so I'll just refer to him as John. 

Day after day, the scale was developed through a series of tirades against poor workmanship, shoddy customer service, unfathomable decisions from superiors and incompetent bungling by those in power.

Each logarithmic step in the scale is referenced to a quote from the grumpy and curmudgeonly Victor, as shown below:

Figure 1: The Victor Scale
Various additional steps can be added depending upon the level of frustration felt or whether the letter 'F' is still functioning on one's keyboard.

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