It is a numeral on the noisy alarms that tells me when I should get up. For instance today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already well advanced and I’m correspondingly tired. But none of that is of any help, and because each morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I enjoy getting up in those days.
Well then, Money over 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 as soon as 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. 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 again, I immediately encounter another numeral. The thermometer tells me that I will wear a jacket today the moment I leave the house. And although it really is only a short distance to the automobile, I am glad within my own private measuring station for that piece 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 en route. When I reach the filling station, I am 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 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 depend upon the truth that everything gets measured accurately.
My extended way 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 receiving measured. When approaching the limits of the tipping lines, even the thrust and support forces become of interest. EASILY had the time, I’d stand at the boundary such as a small boy and stare at everything.
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. Regardless of 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 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 are able to 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 planet through different eyes. Does that connect with you, too?
Note
More info on our measuring instruments can be found on the WIKA website.