The SI unit for whelm is called the Kafka (Kf) after Franz Kafka, the first person to quantify whelm. ±1000 Kf (1 kKf) is the average amount of whelm required to take someone from being equiwhelmed with their environment to being eigenwhelmed (+) or antiwhelmed (-), though whelm capacity varies from person to person.

Gregor Samsa, the subject of Kafka's groundbreaking research, was estimated to have reached whelm levels of at least 25 GKf after being unexpectedly transformed into a giant beetle