It is really a numeral on the noisy alarms that informs me when I should get up. For example today, a perfectly ordinary Thursday. The week has already been well advanced and I am correspondingly tired. But none of that is of any help, and because every morning this tiny little numeral resides within me, I enjoy getting up at that time.
Well then, Recreate on the edge of the bed and I drag myself in to the bathroom. Once again, I am met by a numeral. While I can easily adjust as soon as I am 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 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 the next numeral. The thermometer informs me that I will wear a jacket today as soon as I go out. And although it 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 work will be delayed by a few minutes because I have to fill the fuel tank en route. The moment I reach the filling station, I am able to check another numeral, the one that indicates my tyre pressures. Something that I really do not check often enough. Also, while my fuel tank is slowly getting filled, I ask myself if anyone has had the trouble to check on the fuel pump using a standardized 5-litre canister. Why not? You see, it really is quite normal for the official from the calibration authority to check the accuracy of everything frequently. In many other areas too, we can depend upon the fact that everything gets measured accurately.
My extended solution to work takes me past a big building site. What beautiful machines! Especially with the cranes ? once again with that inner eye of mine ? I could 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. Vibrant what 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 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 apply to you, too?
Note
Further information on our measuring instruments can be found on the WIKA website.