It is a numeral on the alarm clock that tells me when I should get up. For instance today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already well advanced and I am 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 way of a numeral. While I could easily adjust the moment I’m awoken by my alarm clock, the numeral on my accursed scales does not seem an easy task 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 visit a numeral with my inner eye ? the water meter can be running.
Refreshed and dry once again, I immediately encounter the next numeral. The thermometer informs me that I should wear a jacket today the moment I go out. And although it really is just 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 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, the one that indicates my tyre pressures. Broke 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 the fuel pump using a standardized 5-litre canister. You will want to? You see, it really is quite normal for the official from the calibration authority to check on the accuracy of everything regularly. In many the areas too, we can depend upon the point that everything is getting 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’d stand at the boundary just like a small boy and 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 might 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 here at WIKA divide up the everyday things into numerals. Completeness can build scales with load cells, and we are able to 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 are able to 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 planet through different eyes. Does that apply to you, too?
Note
Further information on our measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website.