It is really a numeral on the noisy alarms that informs me when I should get up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week has already been well advanced and I’m correspondingly tired. But none of that is of any help, and because every morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I love getting up at that time.
Well then, legs on the edge of the bed and I drag myself in to the bathroom. Once again, I’m met by way of a numeral. While Have You Heard can 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 another numeral. The thermometer tells me that I will wear a jacket today the moment I go out. And although it is only a short distance to the automobile, I am glad in my own private measuring station for that little bit of advice. Once I reach the car, I am met by another numeral. My arrival at the job will likely be delayed by a few minutes because I need to fill the fuel tank en route. As soon as I reach the filling station, I’m able to check another numeral, the one that indicates my tyre pressures. A thing 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 using a standardized 5-litre canister. You will want to? You see, it is quite normal for the official from the calibration authority to check on the accuracy of everything on a regular basis. In many other areas too, we can depend upon the truth that everything gets measured accurately.
My extended solution to work takes me past a large building site. What beautiful machines! Especially with the cranes ? once again with that inner eye of mine ? I can 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. If I had the time, I would stand at the boundary like a small boy and simply stare at all of it.
Then, finally, I reach the business and a perfectly normal Thursday follows its usual course. As always, numerals are at work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. No matter what we do, and where we may go, measurements are omnipresent. As soon as you start thinking about it, the list just keeps getting longer: I start to see the world in numerals because we 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. We are able to measure pressure in three various ways. We are able to measure flow rates and levels. We can measure tension and compression forces and we can calculate angles. We are able to make entire systems safe by monitoring measured values. Anyone who knows metrology sees the world through different eyes. Does that apply to you, too?
Note
Further information on our measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website.