It is a numeral on the noisy alarms that informs me when I should get up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week is already well advanced and I am 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 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 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 see a numeral with my inner eye ? the water meter is also running.
Refreshed and dry once more, I immediately encounter another numeral. The thermometer tells me that I will wear a jacket today the moment I go out. And although it 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 automobile, I am met by another numeral. My arrival at work will 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 in a position to check another numeral, 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 on the fuel pump utilizing a standardized 5-litre canister. Why not? You see, it really is quite normal for the official from the calibration authority to check on the accuracy of everything regularly. In many the areas too, we can depend upon the truth that everything gets 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 undoubtedly 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 would 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, pressure gauge are in work here, ones that ultimately co-determine our lives. Whatever we do, and where we might go, measurements are omnipresent. Once 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 can build scales with load cells, and we are able to establish the temperature with measuring sensors. We can measure pressure in three various 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 are able to 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.