Much has been said lately about the benefits of Pokémon Go. It’s encouraging kids and their parents to go outside and get a little exercise from walking. It’s sparking conversations and friendships among different social, economic and racial groups. It’s getting people more interested in historical and downtown locations.

The mobile video game also has another benefit that’s quite remarkable and not nearly as well-publicized. It’s the one thing that has finally given Americans a conceptual idea of what a kilometer is and a reason to care.

While most of us learn about the metric system in school somewhere between fractions and when math gets all hard with letters and parentheses and stuff, the lesson doesn’t really sink in, as here in the U.S. we don’t use the metric system in our day-to-day lives. After we’re tested on it, we forget most of what we’ve learned, just like we do with cursive writing, the War of 1812 and the periodic table.