About the Exhibition

Measure Island is at Questacon for a limited time and is free with your paid Questacon admission. There is a lot more to measuring than you think! Journey into a fictional land where exhibits are presented as monuments and statues built by a long lost civilisation. Throughout Measure Island, Archy and his dog Cubit explain each exhibit and the science behind it. Rich jungle-themed setwork... interactive hands-on exhibits... Measure Island makes measurement adventurous and fun!

Topics Covered

Measure Island’s topics cover:

• What makes a good measurement? Accuracy vs. precision, repeating measurements, standard units, defining measurements, subjective vs objective measurements
• Why do some of our measurement systems exist? For example, why do we divide our day into 24 hours, when we use decimals for almost everything else?
• What are some of the measurement techniques that scientists use? How do they benefit us? Learn about tag and recapture and stress measurement in engineering, as well as some uses of biological measurements.
• What kind of research is being conducted in the field of metrology? Learn about the latest developments by the National Measurement Institute of Australia.

Exhibit Notes

There’s a lot to see and do at Measure Island!

Archimedes Challenge
Lower a balanced crown and a gold bar into water and discover that they unbalance inside the water, showing that they are different densities. (tabletop exhibit)	density, buoyancy, balance, mass, volume
Balance Platform
Visitors work together to try to balance a large circular platform, measuring their abilities by looking at a spirit level in the centre of the platform. (large exhibit)	balance, density, buoyancy, full body
Barrel of Beasts
Demonstrates the ‘tag and recapture’ model for population estimation. You can estimate the number of balls in a barrel by equating the ratio of tagged and untagged balls in a caught sample with the ratio of tagged and untagged balls in the wider population. (tabletop exhibit)	sampling, estimating, tag and recapture, ratio, population
Challenge Board
Read the challenging questions, then find the answers using coordinates! The questions deal with measurement problems. (wall exhibit)	puzzle, logic, conundrum
Dendroshift
Assemble a tree calendar by matching the ring patterns on three tree samples. Work out which half of a statue is older by comparing the ring patterns on each half of a statue to the calendar. (tabletop exhibit)	dendrochronology, timeline, tree rings, age
Dividing Time
Look at the two clocks – one is a standard clock and the other is a clock that measures time in decimals (10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour, 100 seconds per minute). Consider that time is the only measurement standard that has not been decimalised and the reasons for this. (non-interactive display)	time, decimal, counting systems
Go with the Throw
Visitors throw quoits at a target and compare their resulting pattern with printed graphics to find out if they were accurate, precise, or both. This exhibit highlights the difference between the two aspects of measurement. (wall exhibit)	accuracy, precision, repetition
Hidden Treasure
Dip two diamonds into a liquid and watch one disappear. This is because its refractive index is the same as the liquid. The refractive index can be used to determine the composition of materials that look similar to the naked eye. (tabletop exhibit)	refractive index, light
High Horse
Visitors learn the importance of standard units by measuring a horse with their hands, as well as a pair of standard hands. (wall exhibit)	units, standards, biological measures, withers
How Big is My Fish?
Under 6s can catch a couple of fish and measure their lengths on a fish ruler. They can compare their masses on a fish balancing scale, and learn which is heavier and which is lighter. This exhibit encourages young children to estimate measurements and use relevant measuring vocabulary. (totspot exhibit)	totspot, balance, mass, length, estimate, vocabulary
Monkeys in the Mist
The eye chart on the screen is a very familiar measurement for anyone who’s had an eye test. But there is another measure that is important for determining good vision – this is your contrast sensitivity. Visitors test their contrast sensitivity by trying to find monkeys in a misty jungle and realise that there is more to good vision than clarity. (computer)	vision, contrast, contrast sensitivity
National Measurement Kiosk
Learn about current research in measurement, see how different careers require day-to-day measurements and play a measuring game. (computer)	careers, research, National Measurement Institute, measuring  tools
Order in the Court
Sort the statues by height, by width, by happiness or by cuteness. Objects can be sorted according to many different measurements, but it gets harder if you’re trying to sort a subjective measure. (tabletop exhibit)	sorting, ordering, objective, subjective
Pendulum Pace
Swing the two pendulums from different heights and estimate which will reach the centre first. Many clocks use regular oscillators to measure time, though now we use crystals and atoms instead of pendulums. (tabletop exhibit)	pendulums, oscillators, centre of mass, time
Read My Mind
Grab the handles and watch your heart beat. See if thinking about something scary or calming can change it. Now look at the photos we show you and see which makes your heart go fastest! Biological measurements can be indicators of mood or arousal. (tabletop exhibit)	biometrology, heart rate
Sense-a-Swap
Try to swap a diamond with a sand bag, without waking up the statue! The diamond is resting on a sensor that measures pressure. Sensors use measurements to detect changes in a system. (tabletop exhibit)	pressure, sensors, force
Speedball
Throw a ball at a target and a radar gun uses the Doppler shift to measure the ball’s speed. Compare your speed to some other speeds on offer. Can you throw faster than a cheetah can run? (large exhibit)	speed, doppler, radar, full body
Stressed Out Bridge
Walk across the large model bridge and watch as the principles of optical birefringence show you colourful stress points around your feet. (large exhibit)	polarised, stress, colour, full body
Tall Tails
Young visitors measure their own heights against a ruler, a stack of regular monkeys and a stack of irregular animals. They learn that regular units are very important and that measurements are useful for comparing heights. (totspot / wall exhibit)	units, regular, irregular, standard
There's an Area in There
There are four abstract bunnies on the floor. One of them is smaller than the others, but it’s hard to tell. Use the tangram shapes to find out which bunny is missing a piece. This exhibit shows that you can measure a complex object’s area by adding up the areas of the simpler shapes that make it up. (floor exhibit)	area, tangram
Thermal Mosaic
Touch the different materials using your hands – they feel as if they are different temperatures. Now use an infrared thermometer to measure the same materials and discover they are the same temperature! Human senses can be unreliable at measuring temperature as we get confused by different levels of heat transfer in different materials. (tabletop exhibit)	temperature, heat, emissivity, infra-red
What a Croc!
Measure the length of a crocodile along its back and along its side, to get two different measurements! Measurements need to be defined before they are taken, to ensure that the final result is accurate and comparable with other measures. After making the measurements, visitors can have a photo opportunity by putting their head into a newspaper that challenges them to find all the measurement-related words. (large tabletop exhibit)	fractals, vocabulary, trundle wheel, length
Worth the Wait
Humans aren’t very reliable when measuring time. Try to press the button for exactly 15 seconds. You can get better with practise, but can you get it correct to the nearest millisecond? (tabletop exhibit)	time, estimating, milliseconds, accuracy, precision
You're So Vane
Construct a wind vane by fitting different-sized heads with different-sized tails. How do their relative areas affect how a wind vane works? (tabletop exhibit)	wind, area, direction

Curriculum Links

Bringing your class to the exhibition? These documents show where Measure Island’s exhibits link with various curriculums across the country. Note you may need to download reader software to view or print these PDF documents.