It is a numeral on the alarm clock 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 every 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 in to the bathroom. Once again, I’m met by 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 ? Hack is also running.
Refreshed and dry once again, I immediately encounter the next numeral. The thermometer tells me that I should wear a jacket today the moment I go out. And although it really is only a short distance to the automobile, I am glad in my own private measuring station for that piece of advice. Once I reach the car, I’m met by the next numeral. My arrival at work will probably be delayed by a short while because I have to fill the fuel tank en route. The moment I reach the filling station, I’m in a position to check another numeral, the 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 had 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 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 getting 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 just like a small boy and simply 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. Whatever Twitching do, and where we may go, measurements are omnipresent. As soon as you start thinking about it, the list just keeps getting longer: I start to 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 different ways. We are able to 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.