memes @lemmy.world

2w ago

1/4>1/3 but 151>113

146 comments

Had they adopted the metric system
Or at least had an education system capable of teaching basic maths
- You're from the UK I presume then? 🙂

Americans if they adopted the metric system: ".25kg > .5kg"
- Classic.
- ".25kg > .5kg"
  Which one of those is a third?
  
  Deoends on whether you're asking for a third of 0.75kg or a third of 1.5 kg
  
  0.25 > 0.3
- But that's easy to solve by just adding a zero to .5
  .25kg < .50kg
  Though I could see some profit seeking companies selling a .250 burger for 25% more than their .25 burger.
- The likely answer lol

Sounds to me like they missed the opportunity to sell a 1/5 burger for more instead.
- Fifthy pounder on the way
  
  The filthy pounder with cheese. Sounds like a good movie.
- A regular McDonald's hamburger is 1/10, I think people would have figured it out at that point.

TIL fractions don't exist in the metric system.
- We wouldn't normally say "I'd like a 18/100 kilogram burger"...
  
  Yup for us its 250g vs 333g burgers. Or 0.25 vs 0.33kg
- well they do, but since it's metric it's always 1/10 1/100 ... and they have their own name so no math needed
  
  Fractions still work the same way. The thing is Americans would think the 1/100 is bigger than 1/2, because 100>2. Doesn't matter what unit you start with
  Edit: I see what you're saying with the names. But do you think the average american knows that a quarter pounder is less than a third pounder?

Pretty sure fractions are pure math & not metric or imperial.
Americans do be dumb AF, though.
- Yes and no. Imperial measurements that are not integers are displayed in fractions. Hence quarterpounders and thirpounders. In metrics, fractions are rarely used. Because the scales are more granular and because non-integers are usually displayed in decimals.
  People thinking a third-pound-burger being smaller than a quarterpounder could not have happened with metrics, because, well, look at the title.
  
  I’m from a country where we use metric and can’t think of anything that would normally be displayed as a fraction. Sure we know what half and third are, but they’re not used officially for anything
  
  I find it funny how people are very confidently incorrect here. Best example I can think of is to compare an imperial and metric drill bit set
  
  Imperial measurements that are not integers are displayed in fractions.
  Often, they're not: look at packaging labels especially in grocery stores. Engineers use decimals regardless of unit.
  Weight scales in the US don't mark 1⁄3.
  Quarter & third likely show up for verbal ease/brevity of naming: saying 250 grams is a bit of mouthful & unlikely for naming anything. I suspect if Americans used metric, they might still use fractions to refer to burgers by weight/mass in kg (like drugs!).
  In metrics, fractions are rarely used.
  Also convention. Nothing prevents 1⁄3 kg, 1⁄4 kg, and I'd expect to see 1⁄3 kg more often than 0.3̅ kg if rounding were avoided.
  In metric, Americans still would get this wrong, because they don't understand fractions despite using them. Or are you suggesting everyone would get the order of 1⁄3 kg & 1⁄4 kg wrong?
  
  Are Europeans afraid of fractions or something? It's way quicker to mentally add 9/16 and 3/8 compared to 0.5625 and 0.3750...
  Like I get that metric is better but "metric is when no fractions" make 0/1 sense.
  Edit - tfw you get ratiod by "9+6 is hard" in a thread about people not understanding basic arithmetic
  
  Fractions are more accurate. You can't display 1/3 as a decimal. Americans are dumb, but this isn't an imperial versus metric thing.

Let's just pretend that metric doesn't have fractions.
- Not that they don't exist, but in my experience I have never seen them used, if something is, say, 1/2 liter you see it written as 50cl...
  For burgers, I have seen
  150gr
  250gr
  2 x 150gr
  500gr
  1kg
  But maybe it's only my experience and in other parts of Europe it's different
  
  1/2 liter is usually marked as 0,5 liter.
- Would you rather eat the 113-grammer burger? Or the 151-grammer burger?
  
  Yes.
- Viertel Pfünder und Drittel Pfünder isjust as confusing.
- There is also a metric pound but honestly people don't use it.

No, Americans could have had bigger burgers if they weren't stupid.

metric system
Is this one of those intentionally-obviously-wrong comments designed to encourage people to comment on the meme?
- Worked didn't it?

It's not like Americans need bigger food.

Why does this meme have a veggie burger?
Is it a vegan meme?
- How do you spot a meat eater? They'll tell you.
  
  Just pointing out the odd choice of pictures.
  It’s obviously not a A&W burger or from McDonald’s.
  In fact I don’t think either chain had a vegetarian option in the ‘80’s but I could be wrong.
  
  The meme is literally about two fast food restaurants and the quantity of ground beef they sell. It’s not like he was stretching to point out that’s a plant based burger…

No one went to A&W for burgers back then, footlong chili dog and root beer.
- This, exactly.
  Anyone repeating this 1/4 vs 1/3 bullshit never had one of their 1/3lb burgers. They were fucking terrible. Sysco prison-grade burger patties, drowned in store-brand ketchup with a thin slice of "American"-flavored yellow #5.
  Absolute worst burger I've ever had.
  Growing up, A&W was for chili dogs and a big glass mug of rootbeer. Never order anything else; its always a fat sack of disappointment.
  
  That must have been a US thing. A&W in Canada has had excellent Teen burgers for decades.
  
  I miss it. We’d get footlongs and a gallon of root beer then go to the park across from it. I wonder if it’s still there.
- But that can't be right! I have it on good authority that A&W stands for Amburgers and Woot beer!

Should have sold it as a 2/6ths burger.
The maths teachers wouldn't have been happy, but apparently the buyers would have.
"Woah, 2/6 is waayyyy bigger than 1/4, not like that teensy 1/3 burger they used to have"
- They did bring it back as the 3/9ths burger.
  
  Lol that's amazing, I'm not American so I've not come across this ad before. Thanks.

[VINCENT]
And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
[JULES]
They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
[VINCENT]
No, they don't have fractions, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter is.
[JULES]
Then what do they call it?
[VINCENT]
They call it Royale with Cheese.
- No, they don't have fractions, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter is.
  "No they have the metric system, they don't know what the fuck a quarter pounder is"
  Fractions aren't imperial, fractions are fractions, everyone has them. It's the 'pound' that's imperial and normal people don't use.
  Movie clip
  
  #woosh
  
  How could OP have transcribed the movie clip so wrong, but still made an absurdist joke? Thanks for clearing it up.
  I've been a victim of Poe's Law, but there has to be some threshold where it's not ambiguous.
- Recently it occurred to me that in the US we have 25¢ coins but $20 bills. It never bothered me before but it's really odd. Especially when many other countries have 20"¢" coins.
  
  20¢ coins would be better for transitioning away from smaller denominations of coins. If you got rid of everything smaller you could drop a decimal place.

Do Americans need bigger burgers?
- Fair question. ☝️
- Yes

Americans are every bit as capable of assuming a 1/8 kg burger is bigger than a 1/6 kg burger.

I'm gonna move the goal posts here and say smaller burgers are inherently better. I don't want to chew on a giant pile of ground beef.
- You must love the smashburger trend
  
  Absolutely. Throw on some cheddar or muenster and drizzle some hot bbq, we're in business.
  
  I love them, but I wouldn't consider them a trene. It's one of the original burgers in the U.S.
  Before BK or MCDonalds. And sold at places like Steak N Shake which is fairly common.
- Quar ter poun der. Perfect size. Good marketing.
  "A ThIRd PoUnDeR pLeASe". Too much to chew. Bad marketing.

I will make a 1/100 pound burger, instant money machine

I've just had a radical idea to solve obesity in America

It was more because there weren’t many A&Ws around. Closest to me was over an hour away.
This is so dumb
- the whole meme is just euro cope
  
  I think you meant to type "nearly every country on Earth".

I see this repeated all the time and I'm sure there's some truth to it, but A&W burgers are also disgusting and more expensive than their competitors. So there's that.

1/3 equals 1/4 because in both cases you have 1.

If we're talking about a focus group specifically comprised of regular fast food consumers, you're already kinda pre-selecting for the lowest common denominator.
No surprise that this segment would have lower education overall

Maybe the problem is that nasty pointy cucumber on the bottom of it. Wait, it's that a veggie burger? Who the hell puts pointy cucumber on a veggie burger?

"Uh a 151.197 grammer with cheese."

I thought this was kind of a myth? I recall it being something like the quarter pounder was just well marketed so beat out even bigger burgers.
- Wikipedia confirmed though:
  The AW research firm organized focus groups. The results revealed that many participants mistakenly believed that one-third of a pound was smaller than one-fourth (quarter) of a pound. Focus group participants expressed confusion over the price, asking why they should pay the same amount for a "smaller" third-pound burger.
  This misunderstanding stemmed from consumers focusing on the numbers "3" and "4," leading them to conclude that one-third (1/3) was smaller than one-fourth (1/4), even though the opposite is true.[2]
  A similar explanation appeared in The New York Times in 2014, citing the third-pound burger as one of the most vivid examples of consumer arithmetic failure.[3] In taste tests, customers actually preferred AW's burger to McDonald's, and it was less expensive.
  According to a CBC report, more than half of the people surveyed about the burger said they didn't buy it because they thought they were getting less meat.[4]
  
  This is even more interesting if you notice that Americans use fractions a lot, maybe even more than countries with metric system. It’s 1/2 pound, 5/8 inch, 3/4 mile and so on. Countries with metric system just change the units. Typically we don’t say 1/2 km, we say 500m.
  
  Oof.
  
  In taste tests, customers actually preferred A&W's burger to McDonald's,
  If those taste tests are accurate, I'm guessing that individual stores could select their own suppliers, and didn't choose the suppliers used for the taste tests. Because every A&W burger I've had has been terrible. Completely inedible.
  I would rather buy a quarter pounder from anywhere else than accept a free 1/3, 1/2, or 1lb A&W burger.

Is that like a crab cake as a burger? What's up with the giant chunks of cucumber? That sweet and sour sauce running down it is gonna make that so messy and the bun is gonna be sliding off in both sides and soaked through.
Christ that is more cursed a burger than an A&W burger could ever be.
- Yeah, if this is the burger they introduced then I think we know why it failed.
  
  Burger looks like ass

We can't afford bigger burgers now anyway, the price of beef is insane. And when bigger burgers are desired, they'll sell "double quarter pounders". Not that Americans generally need bigger burgers anyway, but that's a different topic.
- the price of beef is insane
  Good

Carl's Jr. did the same thing. The 1/3 pound was perfect. Two 1/4 patties are too much, one 1/4 patty is too little.
I miss the Carl's Jr. 1/3 pound burger.

The funny thing is McDonald's also tried 1/3 lb burgers later on, and also failed.
- It's probably also why they don't advertise a Big Mac is 1/5 pound of beef, because it would make the Quarter pounder lose interest I assume.
  
  They are actually 1/10 lol. I think that's why, they don't want ppl to know how tiny those patties are. I add two patties to bring it up to 4 total at 4/10 lb, puts it 1 patty shy of a double quarter pounder.

There are three countries using the ass backwards Imperial measurement system. USA, Liberia and Myanmar...WTF!?!?

I grew up in America and I can confirm, Americans are very dumb.

"try our new 113g burger"
- Yes, I've literally seen baked goods advertised like that. One bakery in my town is proud of its bigger-than-average pretzels and puts the weight right there on the ad posters.
- The famous 113 grammer with cheese

I hear this type of take often but I'm skeptical that it happened (originally heard it as McDonald's doing it, not A&W) and I'm skeptical that it's the reason it failed.
You could test this by setting up a food stall that sells something like this as a control.
6 pc for $5
9 pc for $5
12 pc for $9
Then do something similar with the burgers. See how many people inherently want more for the same price. Then switch it up so the middle one is cheaper. Switch the ordering of the lists as well. Etc.
Do I think some people just don't understand fractions and think third is less? Sure. But I think there are too many variables to say that's it alone. If someone is that bad with math, it's gonna matter if you write it as ½ ⅓ ¼ or half third quarter. Then it's gonna matter if they ask what the ⅓ means versus if the cashier asks if they want "half, third, or quarter".
All that to say, I think there are definitely some people who don't inherently want more food, even if it's the same price (and maybe even if it's cheaper) and I'm not sure how many people like that there are versus people who are bad at the math aspect. Throw in stuff about how the menu is presented and I just don't see how we can really come to this conclusion.
Shout out to the time my buddy realized it was 1¢ cheaper to get two 6 of meals than one 12 pc meal. (Basically 6 of was like $5.99 and 12 pc was like $11.99 or whatever.)
- I mean, I don't know why you'd be skeptical.
  A&W has a write up about it https://www.awrestaurants.com/blog/memories-history/the-truth-about-aws-third-pound-burger-and-the-major-math-mix-up/
  And Snope's did an article https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/06/17/third-pound-burger-fractions/
  There's plenty of blunders like this. Like when JCPenny's just gave great prices and sales dropped because if something is $50, that's too much. But 75% off from $200, well, that's a deal! We know more about the JCPenny one, because it happened in 2012 and not 1980-something
  
  It's not like I'm gonna do research before making every comment. I was skeptical because it sounds far fetched.

146 comments