It is really a numeral on the noisy alarms that tells me when I should get up. For instance 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 enjoy getting up in those days.
Well then, legs on the edge of the bed and I drag myself in to the bathroom. Once again, I am met by a numeral. While I can easily adjust the moment I am awoken by my alarm clock, the numeral on my accursed scales does not seem easy to influence. Or, at best, in the long-term. I decide in the evening 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 again, I immediately encounter another numeral. The thermometer tells me that I should wear a jacket today as soon as I go out. And although it is only a short distance to the automobile, I am glad within 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 work will probably be delayed by a few minutes because I have to fill the fuel tank on the way. 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 had the trouble to check on the fuel pump using a standardized 5-litre canister. You will want to? You see, it really is quite normal for an official from the calibration authority to check on the accuracy of everything regularly. In many other areas too, we can rely upon the point that everything gets measured accurately.
My extended way 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 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 just like a small boy and simply stare at everything.
Then, finally, I reach the business and a perfectly normal Thursday follows its usual course. As always, numerals are in work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. Stoic what we do, and where we might go, measurements are omnipresent. Once you start great deal of thought, 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 are able to build scales with load cells, and we can establish the temperature with measuring sensors. We 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 are able to 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.