It is a numeral on the alarm clock that informs me when I should get 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 each morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I love 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 I 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 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. The thermometer tells me that I should wear a jacket today when I go out. And although it really is only a short distance to the car, I am glad within my own private measuring station for that piece of advice. Once I reach the automobile, I am met by the next numeral. My arrival at work will likely be delayed by a short while because I have to fill the fuel tank on the way. When I reach the filling station, I am able to check another numeral, one that indicates my tyre pressures. A thing that I do not check often enough. Also, while Illegal is slowly getting filled, I ask myself if anyone has had the trouble to check on 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 on the accuracy of everything on a regular basis. In many other areas too, we can depend upon the fact 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. 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 business and a perfectly normal Thursday follows its usual course. As always, numerals are at work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. Regardless of what we do, and where we might go, measurements are omnipresent. Once 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 are able to measure pressure in three different ways. We can measure flow rates and levels. We are able to 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.