It is really a numeral on the noisy alarms that informs me when I should get up. For instance 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 enjoy 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’m met by way of a numeral. While I can easily adjust the moment I’m awoken by my noisy alarms, the numeral on my accursed scales will 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, 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 informs me that I will wear a jacket today the moment I leave the house. And although it is just a short distance to the automobile, I am glad in my own private measuring station for that piece of advice. Once I reach the automobile, I’m met by another numeral. My arrival at the job will probably be delayed by a few minutes because I need to fill the fuel tank en route. As soon as 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 taken the trouble to check the fuel pump using a standardized 5-litre canister. Why not? You see, it is quite normal for an official from the calibration authority to check the accuracy of everything on a regular basis. In many other areas too, we can rely upon the fact that everything is getting measured accurately.
My extended way to work takes me past a big building site. What beautiful machines! Especially with the cranes ? once ไดอะแฟรม with that inner eye of mine ? I could see so many numerals: The weight raised on the boom will undoubtedly 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’d stand at the boundary such as a small boy and stare at everything.
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. No matter what we do, and where we might 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 at WIKA divide up the everyday things into numerals. We are able to 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 can measure tension and compression forces and we are able to calculate angles. We are able to 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 can be found on the WIKA website.