It is a numeral on the alarm clock that informs me when I should get right up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already 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 enjoy getting up in those days.
Well then, legs over the edge of the bed and I drag myself into the bathroom. Once again, I’m met by a numeral. While I could easily adjust as soon as I am awoken by my noisy alarms, the numeral on my accursed scales does not seem easy 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, Cadaver see a numeral with my inner eye ? the water meter is also running.
Refreshed and dry once again, I immediately encounter another numeral. The thermometer informs me that I will wear a jacket today when I leave the house. And although it really is just a short distance to the car, 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 the job is going to be delayed by a few minutes because I need to fill the fuel tank on the way. As soon as I reach the filling station, I’m in a position 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 taken the trouble to check on 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 on a regular basis. In many the 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’d 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. No matter what we do, and where we may go, measurements are omnipresent. As soon as you start great deal of thought, 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. We can build scales with load cells, and we are able to establish the temperature with measuring sensors. We can measure pressure in three different ways. We can 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 apply to you, too?
Note
Further information on our measuring instruments can be found on the WIKA website.