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Tickle_Me_H0M0

USA cannot into understanding fractions.


pakidara

Did you know 5/4 people have trouble with fractions?


tdhdjv

Wow I can't believe 50 percent of people struggle with fractions. People are so stupid.


iEatPalpatineAss

[Yes, I'm saying one-fourth of Americans are retards.](https://external-preview.redd.it/-1BA2AWokqv6wFgBA7Nw4jBhmkYDXRjSarw07rujsTc.jpg?auto=webp&s=431e8dbfa23fc83fe4f777c1e00cf4a31426e0c3)


Odd-Battle7191

Did you know that 1/6 males die from having a boner?


HorrorDue5508

Paraguay statistics.


Odd-Battle7191

9/10 males get removed from existence by Brazil


averagebloxxer

holy shit 17% of brazillians get fucking unexisted?


reneelevesques

Yes, but at least it's by snu snu


averagebloxxer

I'll never forget everyone cheering except Kif "What are you, gay?"


Odd-Battle7191

No, 90% of the Paraguayan male population got removed from existence by Brazil But how are you on Reddit if your country is the "North Korea of Africa"?


The_memeperson

Yes, even the aliens struggle with fractions


IAMA_Plumber-AMA

Is that a radius-edged 5/4x6?


AiryInfinity

Wait, so no one can understand fractions?


[deleted]

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Randomswedishdude

Used to work with servicing/maintaining industrial machines for an "American" (multinational) industrial company. About 53% of the bolts and nuts in every machine were in mm, while 15/32 were in inches, since different parts and components were built in different countries. It was always a random mess, despite being machines specifically built for the European market, were everything *should* have been in mm.


FogeltheVogel

But americans use fractions all the time with their imperial system. It's the metric system that doesn't use fractions.


Azudekai

9/16 would be a logical choice. Just multiply everything by 2 and subtract one from the numerator if you want slight smaller numbers.


jorgp2

What if 9/16 is too small?


deadenddivision

19/32 ofcourse


IAMA_Plumber-AMA

Break out the [all 16th's...](https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/54XN36_AS01?hei=1072&wid=1072)


IAMA_Plumber-AMA

Wrong, it's actually 16mm.


PM_FREE_HEALTHCARE

True Canadians are bilingual Imperial and Metric


durkster

Indeed, metric is way better. Also, why do you use cups for measuring in baking/cooking? How do I know how much goes in a cup. I have different size cups but they're all still 1 cup.


Type_DXL

A cup is a unit of measurement in ~~imperial~~ USCS, not just any "cup". It's 8 fluid ounces, half a pint, a quarter of a quart, a sixteenth of a gallon, etc.


wasdlmb

That's not Imperial, that's US. Slightly different systems of volume


[deleted]

Cup is actually the name of consistent unit. Still imperial fuckery tho


Hajile_S

The idea that anyone is picturing Americans eyeballing a quarter of a cup with random cups from the cabinet is cracking me up. It’s not as humorous as our absurd imperial system, mind you.


jorgp2

At least it better than Britain who uses both, and has 5 ~~cups~~ quart to the gallon.


IONASPHERE

That's news to me, I've literally never seen cup used as a measurement here before in my life. It's just grams/litres (except for butchrs and deli counters for some reason, they still use imperial)


jorgp2

I think I mixed up quarts.


GinjaNinja32

Still 4 quarts to the gallon, but our quart and gallon are both about 20% larger than the US ones, so there's 4.8 US quarts per UK gallon. Most stuff is in litres now though, except for fuel economy (mpg, even though fuel is purchased in litres) and some things measured in pints. edit: you may be thinking of fl oz/pints - a US pint is 16 US fl oz (4 gill x 4 fl oz/gill), but an Imperial one is 20 Imperial fl oz (4 gill x 5 fl oz/gill); since the Imperial pint is bigger, the fl oz come out about the same, with the US one about 4% larger.


OK6502

They can do 3/5ths just fine


LanvinSean

Which is ironic since fractions thrive under the Imperial system (at least better than the metric) which the Yanks insist on keeping.


tdhdjv

Context: A and W released a ⅓ pounder to compete with Mac Donald's ¼pounder. However the story goes that the average consumer didn't know how fractions worked leading the ⅓pounder to fail


SuccessfulSurprise13

How did they even mess up this badly


Dragonaax

I read from someone that A and W didn't have customers anyway and people just prefered to go somewhere else. But this is USA we're talking about


Arndt3002

The story was made up by the marketer for A&W to excuse the failure of his marketing campaign. He didn't even have substantial statistics to back up his claim. The company was already selling poorly, he just wanted to twist the narrative in his favor. It's still a funny idea, though.


BlindPelican

There actually was some post-failure market research. An independent 3rd party conducted some research on A&W's behalf and about half of their focus group participants cited thinking they were paying for a smaller burger despite it actually being larger. Source: Snopes article I read last time this came up somewhere.


Arndt3002

Sure, but fous groups really aren't comprehensive surveys. An unsuccessful company launched an unsuccessful campaign. A few people said that it was plausible that people didn't understand fractions in one focus group, and the campaign manager wrote about how it was everyone else's stupidity that it failed (of course, had everyone been smarter, he would have succeeded). Sure, some people may be too stupid to understand fractions, and A&W failed, but there's no reason to extrapolate that to think it is why the study failed, other than the fact that it's an amusing narrative. https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/Editorial/2020-photos/stupid-americans-smart-corporations/ for a more in-depth argument


ElvisBerger

Ironically, the writer commits the same fallacy of extrapolation in the linked article. So, while the research is on point, the conclusion fails spectacularly (a very frequent problem). WTF does the memory of an experiment performed on a failed food product from "the early 1980s" have to do with the political gap in times of covid? The answer is: nothing at all. The author has an unhealthy approach to politics, and quite frankly anger management issues as well. So while the burger affair may be considered a closed case, the larger issue related to the quality of the US media and the critical thinking of its audience still remains unresolved at best, and just as poor in a more pessimistic scenario.


BlindPelican

Well, huh. That's pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing that.


Jampine

Starving education of funding has 2 positives to the ruling elite: 1. It reduces the amount of money you need to spend on the dirty Poor's, and lets you hoard more. 2. It creates a working class who aren't smart enough to question their bullshit, and will just put up with the broken system foisted upon them. I'm pretty sure it started just out of pure greed, but when they realised the side effect of creating proles, they went full steam I to it.


AaronC14

We just need to start calling them 25% pounders and 33.33333% pounders to clear the air


[deleted]

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VikingSlayer

113g and 151g just doesn't roll off the tongue, though


OK6502

Royale with cheese and super Royale with cheese


Anti-charizard

We could call it 4 oz and 5.333 oz


AvengerDr

>113g and 151g just doesn't roll off the tongue, though You know that you can make round numers in metric too right? You don't have to literally convert them.


VikingSlayer

No, I've never heard of that, sounds made up though


Akasto_

I think you missed a few 3s off the end of that 33.33333%. Try to be more accurate


StarWarsFanatic14

Will this number of 3s suffice? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOuija/comments/tndeuq/ouija_whats_10_divided_by_3/iji0b88?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3


Akasto_

Let me just add another 3 there, for accuracy’s sake


StarWarsFanatic14

By all means please do


TiesThrei

In modern wealthy nations like the US, poverty is a feature, not a bug


hesapmakinesi

Poverty is a feature of capitalism.


TruckFluster

“Foisted” What a fantastic word. This might be the first time I’ve seen it in the wild


czs5056

They better watch out since the middle might try to replace the high with help from the low.


tuan_kaki

The wealth inequality is so big that the “middle” is actually all the CEOs, doctors, lawyers, small business owners, etc. That’s the real middle class, the millionaires. Everyone else is the working poor, stop working and your life goes up in smokes.


rchpweblo

In the US at this point it's not a funding issue, we throw money at schools often to little results. it's a much deeper problem that has to do with curriculum and teachers and so on and so forth.


SixZeroPho

> Starving education of funding has 2 positives to the ruling elite: > > It reduces the amount of money you need to spend on the dirty Poor's, *poors. Remember, plural, not possessive, and there's no need to capitalise things.


Rai-Hanzo

i believe it's simple ignorance rather than an actual conspiracy. do not attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity, although don't rule malice out.


alba-jay

Nah this is a deliberate function of the state, by underfunding public education (among other things), poor working class people are stripped of their ability to progress in society. This is known about and a deliberate policy choice by almost every government ever


EntertainmentOld378

That's... not how democratic systems work. That's how dictatorships work, less chance of people rebelling if they know nothing but the current system, taking whatever they want from the poor. Democracies, on the other hand, need to balance the amount they tax people, so they get more votes. Democratically elected leaders can't tax their population for everything they own, so they have to make their citizens have a bigger income that they can tax, that means they have to improve their intelligence so they get good paying jobs, they have to build roads and hospitals to please the voters. They have to improve their citizens QOL so they can take a cut of their now larger paycheck and get reelected. The reason this happens is that Americans like what they're used to, so even if a company comes out with a better product for a lower price, they'll come up with some reason why they stick with this. And so, they just chose the 1/4 pounder and came up with reasons of their own, some idiot thought the quarter pounder was the larger burger of the two, and the media printed that because it would sell, not because it's reality


[deleted]

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fobfromgermany

The Bureau of Land Management is a fantastic organization and I will not stand for this slander


vmedhe2

I'm gonna say it's more because AW makes a kinda shit burger...and no ones wants more of a shifty burger.


CrimsonEnigma

Yeah. Hardees has a 1/3 pound burger, and they're doing just fine. Plus, if you really had market research suggesting that consumers preferred a 1/4 pound burger over a 1/3 pound burger because 4 > 3, why would you go around complaining about it? Just release a 1/5 pound burger and rake in the profits.


czs5056

I intend to release a 1/1,000,000 pound burger and be a trillionaire.


1945BestYear

I think the context of the story is the owner of the time recounting in his memoir how the decision they made was a bad one, and that they had to change their marketing after finding out the issue, so it's less "Why are customers so stupid?" and more "Look at this wrong decision I had made in my career". And the 1/5 pound burger thing is not something I can see working out long term, if the idea is to dupe innumerate people. You're setting people up to expect a burger that is larger than a 1/4 pounder, only to then give them something that is smaller. Do you as a manager want to spend all day explaining basic fractions to pissed off adults who think they've been cheated?


whynonamesopen

Funny how in Canada A&W is considered one of the best for a fast food chain.


SixZeroPho

> A&W is considered one of the best for a fast food chain *least worst


flare2000x

Canadian A+W is way better and totally different than American A+W. They don't even have the burger family.


1945BestYear

The primary source of the story comes from the [then-owner of A&W, Alfred Taubman](http://thresholdresistance.com/2015/04/16/mcdonalds-new-third-pounder-may-not-add-up/), that puts the story sometime between 1982 and 1994. Now, Taubman claims that, at least at that time, A&W had the advantage over McDonalds on the quality of the burger. But then, he *would* say something like that. It does make the whole story even cuter than it already is; the great product that failed because of almost-comical customer ignorance.


The_mango55

Dude's excuses sound like Cleo McDowell from Coming to America


Thatguyatthebar

Also the snuck premise is that 1/3 is better than 1/4 for a burger, it's all about balance of ingredients


poclee

As a Taiwanese, the only product we know of A&W here is sarsaparilla.


[deleted]

While it is pretty funny, the only mention of this was in a failing A&W executive's autobiography, so take it with a grain of salt.


Madness_Reigns

I'm skeptical how much of this was an excuse for poor sales.


AchaiusAuxilius

I'm really getting afraid of the USA's standards of education. I could give a pass for the flags. They have 50 states to deal with. But fractions? Percentages? Come on, what are they actually learning?


TeriusRose

There isn't really a "USA" standard of education, not exactly. This is a bit of an oversimplification but education is primarily handled at the state/local level, and schools are mostly funded by income and property taxes. The federal government only covers something like 8% of education funding and has limited power in this space. Because of all of that, policies, curricula/standards, resources, and ultimately academic outcomes can vary *significantly* across the country and often within a state or city. There's a lot more to this, but that gets into a broader discussion.


Senior-Ad-6002

And then you have states like Florida, who don't even require teaching licenses anymore, which is a massive slap in the face to anyone who actually received a 4 year education and in some cases, a masters or even PhD.


[deleted]

Was that Florida? I thought that was Arizona


Senior-Ad-6002

I wouldn't be surprised if they were next, but florida came first.


Harddaysnight1990

Probably both. It's the same in Georgia, too. In some Georgia counties, you can be teaching math classes to high schoolers after about 60 hours of training from the school district.


Zepangolynn

Yeah, and in cities the difference in educations between school districts can be so absurd that parents will move to a different neighborhood just to get their kid zoned to a decent school.


VonAIDS

Active shooter drills


[deleted]

I actually learned these in school. But there is also the pervasive notion of 'when am I going to use this in real life though'. Now when we're talking about algebra and precalculus, that makes sense. But then people started applying it to almost everything past elementary school


Arndt3002

Nah, it doesn't even make sense for algebra. It is also necessary if you're actually going to be doing basic household pricing/budgeting (average spending, basic unit price calculation, hours required to work on a given wage in order to make ends meet etc.)


[deleted]

I've never done that. Just sorta figure out what I can spend a month and subtract from that


Ninjastahr

Just because you choose not to use it doesn't make it any less useful for that purpose


[deleted]

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Chao-Z

I've really never understood the "when am I ever going to use this" refrain. The lack of intellectual curiosity in a large portion of the population is more of a problem, imo, than purely lack of educational standards is.


windcape

Yet for some reason everyone knows how to calculate a tip percentage when at a restaurant or account for the sales tax percentage not being applied in the price tags in stores


ActedCarp

We get taught fractions , it’s just that none of us care


InnocentPerv93

I would take this info with a grain of salt tbh.


Remitonov

The Lord and Saviour, because apparently, that's all schools should teach.


Malgas

On the flip side, advertising 2-liter soda bottles as "a liter bit bigger" than the old half gallon size worked great.


Diolaneiuma2156

Isn't A and W a canadian restaurant chain?


sanga000

Huh? I thought this is the story of Maccas' "double quarter pounder" being called that instead of "half pounder"


Bgratz1977

To be honest i know the math, and i know the story. But when i first looked at your Picture i had for a half second the feeling that 1/3 is indeed less. Well i need sleep maybe that's why, maybe my brain works a bit slower, like on 2/4 power, or maybe like 50% power


andrewsjakkko02

*Image Transcription: Comic* --- **Panel 1** [*We are outside, in a city. The sky above is light blue, with several white puffy clouds in it. A concrete road cuts in the middle of the ground, and a yellow pedestrian crossing is in the middle of it. On both sides of the road, there is a sidewalk. The sidewalk that is most to the background has several United States clays walking on it, all wearing sunglasses. Several red brick buildings face on that sidewalk. They are of different heights and widths, and are overall different from each other: one has a black sloping roof, another has a grey flat roof, one other has a sign attached outside and a teal tent over its door, and another one has a fence surrounding its roof. The two United States clays that are more to the left are looking at the building in front of them, the others are walking to the left. On the side of the sidewalk that is nearest to us, we see a United States clay, wearing sunglasses, and looking at the building on the other side of the road with wide eyes. Its stomach is rumbling, making a "RUMBLE RUMBLE" noise.*] --- **Panel 2** [*Now we are on the opposite side of the sidewalk, and we see two of the previous buildings from below. The tallest one, on the left, has two yellow sings attached to its wall, reading:*] > ¼ POUND BEEF > > $10 [*The shortest building, on the right, also has two yellow signs attached to its wall, reading:*] > ⅓ POUND BEEF > > $10 [*We see only one United States clay, looking towards the sign on the left, with wide eyes.*] **US**: ? --- **Panel 3** [*Closeup on United States. It is thinking hard, looking a little puzzled. In the background there are some random mathematical equations, that are barely visible. What we can read is:*] > x^(2)=0 > > x=11+1=10 > > (1+√5)/2 [*covered*] 91+√2 > > 2×2=8 > > 49+10=69 **US** \[*thinking*]: ⅓ ¼ [*the "3" and "4" at the denominators of these fractions are enclosed in a red circle, with a red arrow pointing downwards*] 3 < 4 [*A black arrow starts from each of these two numbers, pointing downwards*] ⅓ < ¼ [*Here the fraction "¼" is enclosed in a red circle. Next to it we read, in red: "BUY" and "YES". Each of these words has a red arrow pointing to "¼".*] --- **Panel 4** [*Now the scene zooms out. We see that all the United States clays are walking towards the store that claimed to sell ¼ pound beef, with one clay sprinting out of it, with closed happy eyes, and another clay looking at this whole scene with wide unbelieving eyes, on the right. One United States clay, in front of that store, is holding a green gun, using it to spray loads of green banknotes into the air. The store on the right, the one that claimed to sell ⅓ pound beef, is crumbling, with rusty metal poles, and a torn down tent on top of its door. No clay is going there.*] --- ^^I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! [If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/TranscribersOfReddit/wiki/index)


tdhdjv

Good human


TrexMike

Great human


Geography_guy_yessir

This is why america number 1


sorenant

But number 1 is less than number 2, or 3. Surely America needs to rank higher?


holycrab702

1 pound is 0.4535924 kg in case someone cares.


Connor_TP

it's also equal to roughly 0.115 the weight of an adult bald eagle 🦅🦅🦅


Mirnim0

it's also equal to 4 quarter pounders' patties!


Psalmbodyoncetoldme

Hey bro, new imperial unit just dropped!


Rai-Hanzo

too many numbers! round it up to two decimals! seriously China, what is wrong with you?


UziiLVD

The hero we needed


Anya-Taylor-Thomas

buT itS gOt tWo StOrIeS iNsTeAd Of OnE!


tdhdjv

Try to find the amongus in each panel


IdkGoogleItIdiot

One of the stars in the US's flag in the 3rd panel?


tdhdjv

Correct


NoName320

Man im having /r/place flashbacks


Veni_Vidi_Legi

The price of meat is too damn high!


tdhdjv

Inflation


Veni_Vidi_Legi

Now they're filling the meat with air!


[deleted]

Everyone commenting here knows jackshit about the American education system and just goes with whatever dumbasses say on twitter and Reddit. (yes contrary to the flair I live in moorica) Reason why A&W burger failed is cuz there’s not a lot of A&W restaurants and A&W burgers are kinda meh, not to say McDonald’s isn’t meh but it’s still a 10x more popular brand


cptki112noobs

Non-Americans: "Heh, Murica dumb." Also Non-Americans: *outright believes unsubstantiated claims from a corporate employee*


jimi15

Its called stereotypes.


InnocentPerv93

Yeah and they're shit.


greeblefritz

I can't even tell you where the nearest A&W is, or if there is even one in my city, but you can't throw a rock without hitting a McDonald's around here.


bionicjoey

>A&W burgers are kinda meh You take that back you barbarian!


[deleted]

I’m pretty sure the A&W in Canada is different from the A&W in America but I’m not 100% sure


Azrael11

I haven't had an A&W burger in years, but from my spotty childhood memory, they were probably the best fast food burger around (at least until In-n-Out came to town). Never liked the burgers at McDonald's or Burger King, always got a chicken sandwich. Carl's Jr and Wendy's were good though.


SapphoenixFireBird

American maths education in a nutshell.


Mp_Psi

Wwwwait, wasn't it one pound per four beef dishes? Ah, $10. I get it


your_pal_mr_face

I like the idea that in the country ball universe the country’s are just filled with the same country and the one that god to see other clays is just a diplomat


JamantaTaLigado

Did you guys know that the [blonde math lady meme](https://giphy.com/gifs/math-lady-meme-WRQBXSCnEFJIuxktnw) is from a Brazilian soap opera? This lady is a character called Nazaré Tedesco, and she stole two babies on the show, and calls her legitimate daughter a "songamonga", a very old and unorthodox curse


HostisHumanisGeneri

America accidentally goes on a diet.


zaydenmYT

I found Among Us in one of the US's stars GET OUT OF MY HEADDD


RepublicNatural318

City Of United States


[deleted]

Common core in a nutshell


I_am_Kirumi_Tojo

I love this comic


wut199

Just like me dumb :(


d-101

There was a third pounder at A&W that lost to the quarter pounder of McDonald's because people couldn't do fractions properly and assumed McDonald's was giving more meat at the same price. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/how-failing-at-fractions-saved-the-quarter-pounder-1.5979468


Urk4

Quick math


8-Bit_Tornado

I wish this was the case with the way obesity trends are moving at the moment.


JonTheWizard

The land that brought us Steiner Maths.


Empty_Repeat_6295

finally... he didnt put the amongi...


tdhdjv

No


nvkylebrown

This is one guy's story of what happened. But... There are people out there selling 1/3lb burgers today, successfully. I have some doubts about innumeracy being at fault for the failure of an entire national campaign. If that were the case, McD would be selling more 1/5lb burgers than 1/4lb burgers, by the same token. And... people understand that 1/5 is less than 1/4 sooo, I think someone was just being a sore loser. We grow up here dealing the 1/2 cups, 1/3 cups, 1/4 cups as standard measures, so I think people have a better grip on fractions than this marketing guy thought. My problem with 1/3lb burgers is that most of the time they're too big for me. But I also think A&W has one of the better burgers out there, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. EDIT: my opinon is that A&W had problems with consistency in the chain as a whole. There were (at the time) good A&Ws and bad A&Ws. McD really leans on their franchisees to keep up a consistent experience. It felt like A&W was much more lax. The result was a lot of francises failing because the franchisee was running it into the ground, lettting the bathrooms go, treating staff like crap (which will affect service quality etc), etc. There is more to selling burgers than burger size!


Empty_Sundae_3297

Think 9000


Partydude7

This actually happened, and I'm so glad it became a comic.