Units of time

2021-06-28T05:22:39Z

Killiama: /* Specific unit definitions */

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<font size="4">'''[[Units of time/Continuity|»]]'''</font> ''See units of the times sorted by '''[[Units of time/Continuity|Continuities]]'''.''</div>

[[Transformer]]s, being extraterrestrials, are often overheard stating measurements in units that are unfamiliar to [[human]]s. Further, Transformers in different [[Continuity|universes]] often use different units for measurement, and sometimes even use the same unit name but define it differently. Following is a list of '''units of [[time]]''' that Cybertronians have been observed using.
==Specific unit definitions==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!width="25%"|Name
!width="25%"|Duration
!width="50%"|Description
|-
|'''Ano-cycle'''||Cybertronian year?||Mentioned in "[[Devastation (issue)|Devastation]]". It was used in context of a set period of time, rather than a relative timespan.
|-
|'''Astro-minute'''||???||Astro-minutes are referenced in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Generation 1 cartoon episode]] "[[Fire in the Sky]]" and could be anything from actual minutes to hours.
|-
|'''Astro-second'''||~3.66 seconds?||First mentioned by the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|original ''Transformers'' cartoon]] episode "[[Transport to Oblivion (episode)|Transport to Oblivion]]". In the original script (available on the [[Shout! Factory]] season 1 DVDs), astro-seconds were not used. Instead, [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]] defines the time until the next [[space bridge]] launch window as occurring in 183 minutes; when the scene was recorded, the line was changed to "3000 astro-seconds". Dividing 183 minutes (or 10,980 seconds) by 3,000 astro-seconds, the end result is 3.66 Earth seconds per astro-second.
|-
|'''Astrosecond'''||.498 seconds||Defined by Dreamwave's ''[[Transformers: More than Meets the Eye|More Than Meets The Eye]]'' #8 as 1/1000th of a breem. Astroseconds as referenced in the original ''The Transformers'' cartoon seem to be much shorter, but were never defined. In particular, in "[[Divide and Conquer]]" Shockwave states that the space bridge will materialize within 72 billion astroseconds, an interval exceeding a millennium if Dreamwave's definition is applied. Even ignoring this extreme case, astroseconds in general cartoon use appeared to be much less than one second each.
|-
|'''Breem'''||8.3 minutes||Originally defined in the [[Marvel Comics]] story "[[The Smelting Pool!]]," also used in [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave's]] comics. In the story [[Meltdown!]] it was further defined as approximately 8.35 minutes.
|-
|'''Century'''||???||In the ''[[Transformers Animated (cartoon)|Transformers Animated]]'' premiere, "[[Transform and Roll Out]]", several references are made to the [[Great War (G1)|Great Wars]] ending "centuries ago", all prior to first contact between Transformers and [[Earth]]. This is probably a case of dialogue being written for human observers rather than indicating the existence of a "Cybertronian century", but it is included here for completeness. Similarly, the history video at the very beginning of the episode refers to "millions of years", an Earth unit. It is unclear how this time should be interpreted. Starscream also refers to the search for the AllSpark as lasting "centuries", which is at odds with Megatron's own statement that it has been "four million solar cycles" (see below).
|-
|'''Cyber-week'''||A week?||A measurement used in the Shattered Glass universe. It is probably equivalent to a week.
|-
|'''Cycle''' (Animated)||~1.5 minutes||In "[[Rise of the Constructicons]]", [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] asks [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Prime]] if he can take a coolant break. Prime responds that he just had a break "two cycles ago". From this it sounds as if a cycle is relatively short — less than a day, certainly — but its actual duration is unclear. In "[[Black Friday (episode)|Black Friday]]", Prowl challenges Bumblebee to stay quiet for "ten cycles", and he talks 30 to 40 seconds later. Prowl then informs Bumblebee that he managed to stay quiet for "barely half a cycle", implying that it is close to a minute. ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 100 nanokliks or about 1.5 minutes.
|-
|'''Cycle''' (G1 UK comics)||12 hours||In the United Kingdom comic story "[[Target: 2006]]", [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/Marvel Comics continuity|Ultra Magnus]] had ten cycles to find out what happened to Optimus Prime and the Creation Matrix until Operation: Volcano began. Emirate Xaaron equated this to five Earth days.
|-
|'''Cycle''' (Beast Wars)||~1 minute||[[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|''Beast Wars'' cartoon]] story editors [[Bob Forward]] and [[Larry DiTillio]] stated that the "cycles" used in their series were ''very roughly'' equivalent to a minute. Maybe more, maybe less, but something of that order of magnitude.
|-
|'''Cycle''' (Energon comics)||1 year||Instead or referring to the period between "''[[Transformers: Armada (Dreamwave)|Armada]]''" and "''[[Transformers: Energon (comic)|Energon]]''" as ten years, Councilor [[Avalon (Energon)|Avalon]] instead referred to it as ten cycles in "[[Multiplicity, Pt. 2]]".
|-
|'''Cycle''' ([[2005 IDW continuity]])||1 hour 15 minutes (1.25 hours)||Defined for use in the IDW universe by [[Simon Furman]] in a forum post.<ref name="furman">[http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?t=150 Simon Furman defines IDW units in an IDW forum post]</ref>
|-
|'''Cycle''' ([[2019 IDW continuity]])||1 day, shorter than an Earth day. ||Defined for use in the 2019 IDW continuity by [[Brian Ruckley]].<ref>[https://twitter.com/Brian_Ruckley/status/1134770533759950850 Brian Ruckley on Twitter]</ref>
|-

|'''Deca-cycle''' (Animated)||~10 days||In "[[A Fistful of Energon]]", [[Ultra Magnus (Animated)|Ultra Magnus]] calls to report that [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] has escaped. He says that it happened "a decacycle ago", and that he would have called sooner but their [[Tachyon transmitter]] was missing. ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 10 solar cycles.
|-
|'''Deca-cycle''' (Beast Wars)||~30 days||As defined by the series's story editors, this unit is on the order of 30 days.
|-
|'''Deca-cycle''' (IDW comics)||~3 weeks||Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.<ref name="furman" />
|-
|'''Deca-phase'''||~8 hours||Mentioned in "[[The War to End All Wars, Part 1]]", the deca-phase is a unit of time used on [[Nebulos]]. Six deca-phases is approximately equal to two Earth days.
|-
|'''Gigacycle'''||???||A unit of undetermined duration that was used in the ''[[Transformers: Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' comic "[[Revelations Part 4]]", as well as in the ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass (fiction)|Shattered Glass]]'' stories "[[Dungeons & Dinobots]]" and "[[Do Over]]", and the [[Aligned continuity family|Aligned]] novel ''[[Transformers: Exiles|Exiles]]''.
|-
|'''Groon'''||~1 hour||Roughly equivalent to an hour. In "[[The Magnificent Six!]]", [[Megadeath (G1)|Megadeath]] let his broken Autobot prisoners go with a neutronic blast imminent in two groons. Retelling this event to [[Silverbolt (G1)|Silverbolt]] in 1990, [[Jazz (G1)|Jazz]] described the time as two hours.
|-
|'''Joor'''||???||Used idiomatically like "hour", but of unknown duration. In "[[The Magnificent Six!]]", [[Steamhammer (G1)|Steamhammer]] had an inspection parade scheduled at 0700 joors, not long after Cybertron's lunar dawn.
|-
|'''Klik'''||1.2 minutes||Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.<ref name="furman" /> The term first appeared as a [[units of length|unit of distance]] in the Marvel UK story "[[City of Fear!]]".
|-
|'''Kilocycle'''||1 year||Defined for use in the 2019 IDW continuity by [[Brian Ruckley]].<ref>[https://twitter.com/Brian_Ruckley/status/1134770533759950850 Brian Ruckley on Twitter]</ref>
|-
|'''Lightyear'''||(a very long time)||Used exclusively in the [[Unicron Trilogy continuity family|Unicron Trilogy]], a lightyear is an epochal unit of time.<ref>A [[Primus|unique digital entity]] came into being lightyears ago, and created the Transformers. {{storylink|First Encounter}}</ref><ref>[[Omega Supreme (Energon)|Omega Supreme]] fought Unicron lightyears before Optimus Prime's Autobots even existed. {{storylink|Omega Supreme (episode)|Omega Supreme}}</ref><ref>This is technically incorrect, as a {{w|lightyear}} is a unit of distance and not time.</ref>
|-
|'''Megacycle''' (Animated)||~2.6 hours||In "[[Lost and Found (episode)|Lost and Found]]" Ratchet estimated that it would take 10 mega-cycles to repair the [[Omega Supreme (Animated)|Autobots' ship]] even with the help of the [[AllSpark Key]]. The Autobots seemed to consider this to be a moderately long time, but not so long for it to be unrealistic that they might repair the ship before the Decepticons come at them in force. Later, in "[[Rise of the Constructicons]]", [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] defends the [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]]' behavior, asserting that "they've been online two, three megacycles tops." ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 100 cycles or about 2.6 hours.
|-
|'''Mega-cycle''' (Beast Wars)||~1 hour||As with the ''Beast Wars'' cycle, this unit is ''on the order of'' an hour, as defined by the series' story editors. Used incongruously in "[[The Agenda (Part 1)]]" to refer to a much longer span of time. (One of the [[Tripredacus Council]] says, "His ship and the ''Axalon'' both vanished last megacycle. The Maximal probes never found them.") [[Ben Yee]] cites a statement from DiTillio that another unit — the deca-cycle — is roughly month-like in length.[http://web.archive.org/web/20070112173228/http://www.bwtf.com/bw/tvshow/geninfo.shtml] This may be the unit that was intended for that line of dialogue. Also used in the ''[[Transformers: Wings Universe|Wings Universe]]'' story [[Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur]].
|-
|'''Mega-cycle''' (2005 IDW comics)||93 hours||Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.<ref name="furman" />
|-
|'''Megacycle''' (2019 IDW comics)||1000 kilocycles||Defined for use in the 2019 IDW continuity by [[Brian Ruckley]].<ref>[https://twitter.com/Brian_Ruckley/status/1134770533759950850 Brian Ruckley on Twitter]</ref>
|-
|'''Meta-cycle'''||13 months||Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.<ref name="furman" />
|-
|'''Micro-breem'''||???||A unit of time mentioned by the [[Air Warrior|Aerospace Extermination Squadron]] in "[[The Age of Wrath Pt.2]]".
|-
|'''''Milli-bleep'''''||''???''||''Mentioned in the original script for [[The Transformers: The Movie]].''
|-
|'''Milli-cycle'''||???||A unit of undetermined but short duration. Mentioned (at least) in the ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' episode "[[Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)]]" and in the ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' episode "[[Spark of Darkness]]''.
|-
|'''Minicon'''||???||A unit of unknown duration used in the Shattered Glass universe. Judging by its usage, it may be roughly equivalent to a minute. The term first appeared in the G1 episode "[[City of Steel (episode)|City of Steel]]", though its usage there does not make clear if it is meant to signify a unit of time.
|-
|'''Nano-cycle'''||~1 second||Used in the ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' episodes "[[Forbidden Fruit]]" and "[[End of the Line]]".
|-
|'''Nanoklik''' (Animated)||~1 second||In "[[Home Is Where the Spark Is]]", Optimus Prime enters Prowl's quarters asking, "Prowl, got a nanoclick?" Also, in "[[A Fistful of Energon]]" [[Lockdown (Animated)|Lockdown]] tells [[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] to "Wait a nanoclick." ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as the duration of 8,589,934,592 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom, or about a second.
|-
|'''Nano-klik''' (Beast Wars)||~1 second||As with the ''Beast Wars'' cycle, this unit is ''on the order of'' a second, as defined by the series' story editors. Used similarly in [[IDW Publishing|IDW]] comics and in the ''[[Transformers: Wings Universe|Wings Universe]]'' story [[Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur]].
|-
|'''Ngs'''||???||Mentioned in "[[The Age of Wrath Pt.3]]" by [[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]]. It may be an homage to [[Joe Ng]], who drew the issue.
|-
|'''Orbital Cycle'''||~1 month||In "[[A Bridge Too Close, Part I]]", [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]], after hearing all his clones, mutters to himself: "This is going to be a LONG orbital cycle." ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 32 solar cycles or about a month.
|-
|'''Orn'''||???||A unit of undetermined duration. It is apparently defined as "one Cybertronian lunar day". {{storylink|Yesterday's Heroes!}}
|-
|'''Paracycle'''||???||When [[Jhiaxus (G2)|Jhiaxus]] came to inspect the [[eco-structuring]] of a new planet in "[[The Power and the Glory]]", the one in charge said they were "almost a full paracycle ahead of schedule." The term was also used in "[[Schism (story)|Schism]]".
|-
|'''Quadricycle'''||???||A unit of unknown duration used in the Shattered Glass universe. Presumably "4" of something.
|-
|'''Quartex'''||~1 Earth month{{anchor|Quartex}}||[[Starscream (Movie)|Starscream]] commanded the Decepticons for "nearly a Quartex" after the battle of [[Mission City]].{{storylink|The Reign of Starscream issue 4|RoS#4}} When [[Barricade (Movie)|Barricade]] summoned him back to [[Earth]] after he was deposed, exactly one month had passed.{{storylink|Alliance issue 1|Alliance #1}}
|-
|'''Quartex'''||???{{anchor|Quartrex}}||[[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] lamented that the energy in the [[conductor]]s that he and [[Bumblebee (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|Bumblebee]] had found "wouldn't last a quartex", indicating a brief duration.{{storylink|More than Meets the Eye, Part 1|MTMTE pt1}} The episode's original script spelled it "quartrex", but Wheeljack is audibly not pronouncing a second "R" in the finished episode.
|-
|'''Solar cycle''' (Animated)||~1 day||In "[[Transform and Roll Out]], Part 1", Megatron says he has spent "the last four million solar cycles searching the galaxy" for the AllSpark. The parallel to Generation 1's famous "four million years" implies that this unit is meant to be year-like. In "Part 3" Starscream refers to the 50-years of searching between the battle where "he defeated Megatron" and the present as 50 solar cycles, cementing this definition. However, in "Part 2", Optimus Prime and Ratchet have an exchange in which they use "solar cycle" in a way that is a better idiomatic match for "day" than "year". Further episodes continue with the "day" definition. ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 10 megacycles, or about a day.
|-
|'''Solar cycle''' (Beast Machines)||~1 day||In the ''Beast Machines'' episode "[[The Weak Component]]", Rattrap uses the term "half a solar cycle" to describe the amount of time the Maximal would leave Megatron alone in order to regain his strength: one night, from dusk-to-dawn.
|-
|'''Stellar cycle''' (Animated)||~1 year||In the ''Animated'' episode "[[Along Came a Spider]]", [[Blackarachnia (Animated)|Blackarachnia]] says that her accident occurred "a thousand stellar cycles" ago. Further, in "[[Megatron Rising - Part 2]]" [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] refers to both "fifty stellar cycles" and "four million stellar cycles", using the term in the way that solar cycles had previously been used. ''[[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|The AllSpark Almanac]]'' defines it as 320 solar cycles, or about a year.
|-
|'''Stellar cycle''' (Beast Wars)<span id="bw_year"></span>||~400 days||Orbital period (a Cybertronian "year") for Cybertron as stated by Larry DiTillio in information sent to Ben Yee. DiTillio also volunteers that Cybertron's rotational period (a "day") is ~20 hours.
|-
|'''Stellar cycle''' (IDW comics)||~7.5 months||Defined for use in the IDW universe by Simon Furman in a forum post.<ref name="furman" />
|-
|'''Sub-cycle'''||???||A unit of time mentioned first in "[[Fragmentation (G1)|Fragmentation]]".
|-
|'''Trimara'''||???||Used in [[The Ascending issue 2|''Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending'' #2]]. Likely "3" of something, but who knows what.
|-
|'''Vorn'''||83 years||Originally defined in the [[Marvel Comics]] story "[[The Smelting Pool!]]," also used in [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave's]] comics.
|-
|'''Decivorn'''||8.3 years<ref>Assuming the prefix "deci" works the same here as in the {{w|SI prefix|metric system}}.</ref>||{{storylink|The New World}}
|}

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Measurements]]

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Units of time