Measurement Rules

How many chickens do you weigh? How tall are you in apples or inches or pennies? Can you use your foot as a ruler? The answers to these and other questions can be explored at Measurement Rules, an interactive exhibit at Creative Discovery Museum from May 16 - September 13, 2026.

You can explore concepts of length, time, volume and weight in a variety of ways:

LENGTH 📏
• Height Wall – How tall are you in apples or pennies?
• Treadmill Odometer – Get walking and add to the total yards we'll calculate visitors walked on our treadmill in the exhibit.
• Ball Gauges – Tinker with instruments such as calipers, height gauges and go/no-go gauges. Explore all of the possible ways to measure an ordinary wooden ball. Toss the balls down the chutes to test your findings.
• Giant Tape Measure – Extend a giant tape measure to measure the equally giant fish on our wall mural.
• Foot Ruler – Fit your foot into the gauge to make your foot a unit of measurement then measure yourself in your "feet" and other people's "feet."

TIME ⏱️
• Five Mississippi – How good is your internal clock? Count to five Mississippi and see how close you come to five actual seconds.
• Ball Stopwatch – Build your own ball ramp and make it faster or slower with modifications.

VOLUME 🫙
• See Your Volume – Step before the screen and see yourself built from cubic-inch blocks.
• Bead Table – Little ones can explore volume at an open-ended bead play table.

WEIGHT ⚖️
• Chicken Scale – Find out how many chickens you weigh.
• Balance Scale – Finesse the right balance between objects and standard weights on a large balance scale.

Located in the Temporary Exhibit Gallery. Measurement Rules was created by Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh