Can Bulma powerscale?

[nickzambuto]

Recently there has been a big debate because Bulma told Vegeta how strong Gohan and Piccolo became. And I've seen a lot of people argue, "Bulma can't sense ki so she doesn't know what she is talking about."

Does that make sense though? We cannot sense ki, yet we powerscale based on the facts and information in the story. Bulma has been present for the entire story and probably has more knowledge than any of us. She is also a genius.

So I think we can trust Bulma's statements. What do you think?

[Koitsukai]

Characters aren't real, Bulma doesn't exist, whatever she says was made up by the author trying to convey something through her. Unless it's some kinda of situation where the point is to show how wrong she is, then she is fair game.

In-universe, yes, sure. She might not know how "it" feels, or exactly how strong somebody is, but she can gather the proper information to make an educated guess.
She cannot sense ki, though, that much is true.

[super michael]

Somehow Future Bulma knew Future Trunks was as strong as Future Gohan when he was alive. Not sure how she knew.

[coola]

Somehow Future Bulma knew Future Trunks was as strong as Future Gohan when he was alive. Not sure how she knew.

Woman intuition? But seriously, she's been around fighters for so long and she is genius, so she could figure out how strong her son could get in those circumstances.

[theherodjl]

Like Freeza, Bulma probably guesses based on observation. She might not be able to sense Ki, but her eyes work well enough to tell that stronger characters means higher power levels. She might even have her own in-universe formula for power levels that she simply doesn't share out of embarrassment that like all fans, her numbers are wrong because she isn't exactly sure if her figures are always correct.

[TobyS]

Somehow Future Bulma knew Future Trunks was as strong as Future Gohan when he was alive. Not sure how she knew.

This is both out of universe authorial intent (bulmas the only one there to say it) AND fine in universe
We don't know what she knows and has seen.

If gohan told her trunks was half as strong as himself, and then trunks told her he's twice as strong as he was a year ago.... She can do math.

She also might be able to feel like how much like wind she's hit with when she trains and powers up from the same distance or something crude but effective like that.

Gohan said trunks will surpass him in a few months or something it could be a time based statement.

It's also a plot point that trunks doesn't contradict her statement even in his own mind. if she was over cautious trunks could argue back or have a thought bubble (mother doesn't know how much I trained, I'm ten times stronger than gohan!)

None of this happens so there's no reason not to take it at face value. He's strong enough not to get roflstomped but weak enough not to win, he has to be at least equal to gohan who was stronger than less than half 17 but not strong enough to win or say he nearly did.