It is a numeral on the alarm clock that tells me when I should get up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already well advanced and I am correspondingly tired. But none of this is of any help, and because each morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I enjoy 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 am met by way of a numeral. While Focused can easily adjust as soon as 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 more, I immediately encounter another numeral. The thermometer informs 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 car, I’m 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 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 had the trouble to check the fuel pump utilizing 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 the accuracy of everything regularly. In many other areas too, we can rely upon the point that everything is getting measured accurately.
My extended solution to work takes me past a large building site. What beautiful machines! Especially with the cranes ? once more with that inner eye of mine ? I can see so many numerals: The weight raised on the boom will be monitored, and angles are getting 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 company and a perfectly normal Thursday follows its usual course. As always, numerals are in work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. Whatever 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 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 can 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 can make entire systems safe by monitoring measured values. Anyone who knows metrology sees the planet through different eyes. Does that connect with you, too?
Note
Further information on our measuring instruments can be found on the WIKA website.