especially in the context of foodstuffs the decagramm (or just deka in common language) is getting used in Austria, don’t know if it’s the same in germany, so it would be a 25 deka burger
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?
I don’t think they’re significantly stupider than anywhere else. I don’t know if there even are statistics on that, I should probably check. Plenty of people are terrible at math over here in Europe too.
The average American literally works in random-ass fractions all the time and doesn’t rely on everything being base ten.
I really want to believe that, as an American. I really, really do. How would a legitimate way of testing that go? There’s no feasible way to test EVERYBODY, so you’d have to consult the statistics people, who I am not.
I was about to start looking into median ages and education rates and literacy, but I really don’t care that much about this as I lay in bed and am about to go to sleep, so I asked chatgpt, which then gave me a long answer with this at the end:
Yes, the average American probably knows that 1/3 is greater than 1/4, but a noticeable percentage—especially among adults with lower educational attainment or math anxiety—may hesitate or answer incorrectly, especially outside of a clear, direct question.
And my intuition tells me this is likely right on.
one way to test it is if a major corporation active all over the country introduces a product with a fraction in the name, meant as a competitor to another product with a smaller fraction. the sales numbers would roughly reflect the result.
I grew up with a mcds and an a&w nearby in the 90s and 00s. A&W is kinda like Wendy’s: their food just kinda sucks. I don’t look at value that closely unless all other things are equal. So saying “nobody bought our burger because they all can’t read numbers” is kind’ve a petulant behavior unless it’s proven imo… it’s like making excuses for your failures.
People just LIKE McDonald’s. And and brand loyalty is real.
People all over the world like McDonald’s for different reasons. That’s not a serious question.
Can this not be Reddit? Please? Reddit culture sucked and I left there for good reason. It doesn’t have to be funny or clever anymore. It’s just real people having real discussion, intelligently, on a real level, yeah?
Most Americans are educated, but it’s a really diverse country with lots of issues. There are plenty of people in countries that use metric that don’t even understand metric or fractions, too, as most people are the exact goddamn same, especially now with the internet. A&W burgers were a specific type and I don’t remember them being very good. I think that’s why they failed, not because people couldn’t maximize the value. If anything, I think it was a death spiral in a company known for putting soft serve and soda together, not 1/12th of a pound of shitty beef.
They probably weren’t making much money, had to cut back, shitty employees cutting quality because they don’t care and bad leadership, and people stopped going even more, and then leadership blamed literacy instead of their own repeated fuckups and that nobody really liked them anymore.
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
especially in the context of foodstuffs the decagramm (or just deka in common language) is getting used in Austria, don’t know if it’s the same in germany, so it would be a 25 deka burger
MORE DEKA!!!
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?
I don’t think they’re significantly stupider than anywhere else. I don’t know if there even are statistics on that, I should probably check. Plenty of people are terrible at math over here in Europe too.
The average American literally works in random-ass fractions all the time and doesn’t rely on everything being base ten.
I really want to believe that, as an American. I really, really do. How would a legitimate way of testing that go? There’s no feasible way to test EVERYBODY, so you’d have to consult the statistics people, who I am not.
I was about to start looking into median ages and education rates and literacy, but I really don’t care that much about this as I lay in bed and am about to go to sleep, so I asked chatgpt, which then gave me a long answer with this at the end:
Yes, the average American probably knows that 1/3 is greater than 1/4, but a noticeable percentage—especially among adults with lower educational attainment or math anxiety—may hesitate or answer incorrectly, especially outside of a clear, direct question.
And my intuition tells me this is likely right on.
one way to test it is if a major corporation active all over the country introduces a product with a fraction in the name, meant as a competitor to another product with a smaller fraction. the sales numbers would roughly reflect the result.
Mmmmm… Doubt.
I grew up with a mcds and an a&w nearby in the 90s and 00s. A&W is kinda like Wendy’s: their food just kinda sucks. I don’t look at value that closely unless all other things are equal. So saying “nobody bought our burger because they all can’t read numbers” is kind’ve a petulant behavior unless it’s proven imo… it’s like making excuses for your failures.
People just LIKE McDonald’s. And and brand loyalty is real.
…why?
People all over the world like McDonald’s for different reasons. That’s not a serious question.
Can this not be Reddit? Please? Reddit culture sucked and I left there for good reason. It doesn’t have to be funny or clever anymore. It’s just real people having real discussion, intelligently, on a real level, yeah?
Most Americans are educated, but it’s a really diverse country with lots of issues. There are plenty of people in countries that use metric that don’t even understand metric or fractions, too, as most people are the exact goddamn same, especially now with the internet. A&W burgers were a specific type and I don’t remember them being very good. I think that’s why they failed, not because people couldn’t maximize the value. If anything, I think it was a death spiral in a company known for putting soft serve and soda together, not 1/12th of a pound of shitty beef.
They probably weren’t making much money, had to cut back, shitty employees cutting quality because they don’t care and bad leadership, and people stopped going even more, and then leadership blamed literacy instead of their own repeated fuckups and that nobody really liked them anymore.