A chemist named Wilbur scoville developed a scale to answer this very question in 1912. His system measures that heat factor of chili peppers is multiples of 100 "scoville units", as rated by human tasters with iron toungues! The higher the rating, the hotter pepper. Here's a peppering of peppers from all parts of the scoville scale spectrum.... Green bell pepper 0 scoville units. Jalapeno pepper 5,000 scoville units Tabasco pepper 50,000 scoville units Habanaga pepper 500,000 scoville units Ghost pepper 1,000,000 scoville units The Ghost pepper is so hot that it will burn your Skin unless you wear gloves.