It is really a numeral on the noisy alarms that tells me when I should get right up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week has already been well advanced and I’m correspondingly tired. But none of this is of any help, and because every 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 into the bathroom. Once again, I am met by a numeral. While I can easily adjust the moment I am awoken by my noisy alarms, the numeral on my accursed scales will not seem an easy task to influence. Or, at best, in the long-term. Calm decide at night to go jogging, but first splash my face with water. Even then, I visit a numeral with my inner eye ? the water meter is also running.
Refreshed and dry once again, I immediately encounter the next numeral. Breaking tells me that I will wear a jacket today when I go out. And although it is just a short distance to the automobile, I am glad within my own private measuring station for that piece of advice. Once Okay reach the car, I am met by the next numeral. My arrival at work will likely be delayed by a few minutes because I need to fill the fuel tank on the way. The moment I reach the filling station, I am in a position to check another numeral, the 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 using a standardized 5-litre canister. Why not? You see, it really is quite normal for an official from the calibration authority to check on the accuracy of everything on a regular basis. In many the areas too, we can depend upon the truth 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 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. If I had the time, I would stand at the boundary just 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. 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 here at WIKA divide up the everyday things into numerals. We are able to build scales with load cells, and we are able to 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 are able to 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 world through different eyes. Does that apply to you, too?
Note
More info on our measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website.