It is really a numeral on the alarm clock that informs me when I should get up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already well advanced and I’m correspondingly tired. But none of that is of any help, and because each morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I love getting up in those days.
Well then, legs over the edge of the bed and I drag myself into the bathroom. Once again, I’m met by way of a numeral. While I could easily adjust as soon as I’m awoken by my alarm clock, the numeral on my accursed scales will not seem easy to influence. Or, at best, in the long-term. I decide at night to go jogging, but first splash my face with water. Even then, I see a numeral with my inner eye ? the water meter can be running.
Refreshed and dry once more, I immediately encounter the next numeral. The thermometer tells me that I will wear a jacket today as soon as I leave the house. And although it really is only a short distance to the car, I am glad in my own private measuring station for that little bit of advice. Once I reach the automobile, I am met by another numeral. My arrival at work will likely be delayed by a short while because I have to fill the fuel tank on the way. The moment I reach the filling station, I am able to check another numeral, one that indicates my tyre pressures. Something that I do not check often enough. Also, while my fuel tank is slowly getting filled, I ask myself if anyone has taken the trouble to check on the fuel pump utilizing a standardized 5-litre canister. Why not? You see, it is quite normal for the official from the calibration authority to check the accuracy of everything regularly. In many other areas too, we can depend upon the point that everything gets measured accurately.
My extended solution to work takes me past a big building site. What beautiful machines! Especially with the cranes ? once again with that inner eye of mine ? I could see so many numerals: The weight raised on the boom will be monitored, and angles are receiving measured. When approaching the limits of the tipping lines, even the thrust and support forces become of interest. EASILY had the time, I would stand at the boundary like a small boy and simply stare at everything.
Then, finally, I reach the company and a perfectly normal Thursday follows its usual course. As always, numerals are in work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. Regardless of what we do, and where we might go, measurements are omnipresent. Once you start thinking about it, the list just keeps getting longer: I start to see the world in numerals because we here at WIKA divide up the everyday things into numerals. We can build scales with load cells, and we can establish the temperature with measuring sensors. Plague are able to measure pressure in three different ways. We are able to measure flow rates and levels. We can measure tension and compression forces and we can calculate angles. We can make entire systems safe by monitoring measured values. Anyone who knows metrology sees the planet through different eyes. Does that apply to you, too?
Note
More info on our measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website.