It is a numeral on the noisy alarms that informs 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 that 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 in to the bathroom. Once again, I’m met by a numeral. While Mammoth could easily adjust the moment I am awoken by my noisy alarms, 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 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 should wear a jacket today when I leave the house. And although it is just 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 have to fill the fuel tank on the way. When 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 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 rely 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 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 getting measured. When approaching the limits of the tipping lines, even the thrust and support forces become of interest. EASILY 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 company 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. 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 can 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 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.