SpaceX is the Unintentional #1 Metrication Advocate
UpdatedThe best way to get others to switch to metric is to simply use metric yourself.
While countries like Australia and New Zealand successfully metricated swiftly in the 1970s by legislative order, such a top-down mandate is not politically viable for America. We are too large, too decentralized, and too rebellious. Instead, metrication is happening in America haphazardly centimeter by centimeter.
Today in the U.S. soft drinks are sold in 2L bottles, running is measured in km, many popular guns are 9mm, electrical usage is all metric, engine displacement is in liters plus car parts are virtually all metric, nutrition and medicine are mostly labeled in g, mg, or cc.
| 2 L soda bottles |
| 1 L water bottles |
| 750 ml bottles of wine |
| 5K runs |
| 4×400m relay track events |
| 100m dash events (world's fastest human) |
| 100m freestyle swimming events |
| 9mm guns |
| 35mm rolls of film and 70mm movie format |
| mm for camera lenses (50mm "nifty fifty") |
| grams on food labels |
| mg for pills and cc for shots |
| 5L engine displacement |
| car parts almost all metric (mm) |
| 1 m USB-C cables |
| Standard 120-volt household outlets |
| mm for 3D printing machines |
| klicks (km) in the military |
| km and km/h for SpaceX livestreams |
| metric in video games (km/h, m, m/s) |
The more we see metric in our daily lives and get accustom to the simplicity and coherency of metric, the faster America will fully metricate. Today the low-key accidental superhero of making metric acceptable and even cool is SpaceX.
SpaceX Starship Launch 10
SpaceX rocket launches captivate the world's attention, and the breathtaking successful 10th test launch of SpaceX Starship is a great time to highlight that the launch status console in SpaceX video feeds are all metric. Speed is displayed in km/h and altitude in km.
SpaceX isn't on a public crusade to metricate America — they simply use metric and don't make a fuss about it. Because of SpaceX, Americans are now familiar with rockets in terms of m, km, km/h, and metric tons.
#1 Metrication Advocate
NASA has historically felt public pressure to communicate in imperial units, but NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) specifically does not mandate imperial units or metric units for launch vehicle providers. Nonetheless, SpaceX is normalizing metric, and making it inevitable that eventually all providers will both use and communicate in metric.
As the most exciting company in the space industry and builder of the world's largest rocket ship in human history, SpaceX's public use of metric is enormously influential.
Think Metric is proud to officially designate SpaceX as The Unintentional #1 Metrication Advocate in America. Congratulations SpaceX! 🏆
