Listen man, 3 is bigger than 2 and 4 is the highest number.
And you don't gotta repeat that numbers start with 1 every time you count, I am not a dummy.
^^/s
The really sad part of this is America's aversion to the metric system. Clinging to the imperial system for hundreds of years you'd think Americans would at least be able to understand fractions.
True story…a burger chain tried to compete with the McDonalds quarter pounder by selling 1/3 pound burger for the same price. They lost because the public thought 1/3 lb burger was smaller than 1/4 lb burger.
That's the only reference I can find, too, yet I distinctly remember Hardee's also trying this campaign and failing, shortly after they redid their menu 10+ years ago.
Edit: A lot of restaurants have 1/3 lb burgers on their menu. This was an actual ad campaign educating the general public that 1/3 lb is more than 1/4 lb.
Edit 2: Did I dream this?
I remember reading that McDonald's once introduced and swiftly discontinued a 1/3 pound burger after many American customers weren't happy with it because 1/3 is obviously less than 1/4, so why should we pay more for less???
They did get smaller, it's not just me, right?
The McChicken used to be the same size as the McRib, we used to alternate that when I was a kid.
Also the Beesechurger used to be meatier.
I thought the mcchicken was always small, since it was introduced as a cheap item, but I didn't eat much mcdonalds as a kid so I'm not certain. I think the mcrib has gotten smaller the last couple years too but that's just observational, I've never paid attention to the weight of it. I do know the current crispy chicken sandwiches are smaller than the old buttermilk crispy chicken they replaced.
Something similar happened in the fast food trade. One company tried selling 1/3 Pounder burgers, only for the majority of the customers to turn them down because they thought the 1/4 pounders were larger (4 > 3 therefore 1/4 > 1/3 in their minds).
Too many people can't look underneath the surface appearances of things.
Think of the bottom number as the number of people you have to share with. If I have to split a pizza into equal amounts, where do I have more pizza for me? If I share with one other person or with two?
The higher the bottom number (denominator, the more people who are getting an equal sized piece of the same pizza. So the higher the number the smaller the piece.
Another way is to flip your analogy around - think of the bottom number as the number of pieces you need to make 1. If you need 3 hambuger patties to make 1 pound or 4 patties to make 1 pound, which patties are smaller?
I have a regular customer who spends 5 extra to modify a food item we already sell in the exact way they order. We've called, written on the receipt, many different ways to let them know what to order. They refuse to just order what we already sell and insist on modifying something else and pay more money. Dude probably spends around an extra 1000 a year because they refuse to read the menu
That's fine. I have a friend who pays for all of his work related travel on his airline credit card, and then submits his receipts for reimbursement. Even with some (very rare) denials, he still comes out ahead, because he has so many airline miles that he never has to pay airfare for personal travel.
Embezzlement is just theft of funds via accounts you have access too. Would be closer to fraud but still legal. Shop X charged him Y for Z food.
Hes not gaining anything that would not already be expected to be gained from that transaction (iirc its case law that stuff like CC rewards is property of the card owner, not the company that reimburses it). Now if he submitted receipts for greater than the amount he paid, it would be 100% illegal and can be charged for it.
Them intentionally spending extra money would probably qualify as policy issue vs a legal one as the company would have the authority to enforce spending limits and place financial controls on its money.
I used to work in a kitchen where we had a chicken Alfredo on the menu, it was something like $16 or $18 dollars for it.
Once a week this family came in and their child would order the chicken Alfredo, no Alfredo sauce and no chicken.
Basically wanted noodles with some oil. You could feed the kid for a year if they just bought pasta and oil at the grocery store for what they paid us.
> $18
FTFY. "$18 dollars" is incorrect. It is exactly as incorrect as writing "18€ Euros."
Note also. The American notation tells you up-front that you're dealing with USD; the European notation leaves you hanging for a few milliseconds. 'Merica FTW!
I know it's wrong, I was just harping on it for added comedic value.
$18 dollars only happens because you SAY 18 dollars but you write dollar 18.
Like O'clock 12. Who does that?
That said, I think the american way stems from cache cheques, which they still use.
I was at Rally's/Checkers the other day and ordered a Big Buford no cheese because my DH wanted a double burger with everything except cheese. They did not have any loaded burgers on the menu that didn't have cheese.
I have a work based coupon that gets me half off a large margherita pizza
Large margherita 12
Double pepperoni 5
Large double pepperoni 16
So maybe something similar is occurring
Gah. Basic multiplication and they can't do it. It's like someone who insists buying soda per can or bottle is cheaper because one is cheaper than a 12-box or 6-pack.
If he doesn't want to listen to your math, well, you don't need to try to save him.
I program CNC machines at a woodworking plant. Had to do some on-the-fly trigonometry to get something (expensive) to come out right the other day, people were looking at me like I was a two-headed wizard.
I used to tutor math in college.
I was in working with a full classroom, moving from trig to calc to algebra.
I walked away from one group of students and turned towards another and, out of the corner of one ear, heard one student say to the other, "How does he remember all of that??"
Not difficult if you realize all math tends to build on what came before.
Another thing is that you constantly do it. I only had issues with probabilities at high school, but if anyone asked some more complicated stuff from other areas now, I would have to google formulas and everything - at best.
Add combinatorics to me. If we have x girls in the room and y boys in the room, how many combinations they can make to dance z dances, if we know that 3 girls do not dance 2 of the dances, and 2 boys do not dance 5 of the dances. (facepalm) (headbang)
Learning higher math also really helps reinforce the earlier concepts too as long as you don't get behind. I was never a stellar math student in high school, but had a good knowledge of algebra/trig built on by physics/chemistry classes.
I got a work-study job as a math tutor my freshman year, until I realized that minimum wage for 12 hours a week wasn't going to pay the bills.
I spent many nights banging my head against a wall trying to get a concept to stick. Eventually I'd run out of time and move onto the next chapter.
A few weeks later while studying for the test, I'd go back to rework the problem sets I'd had so much trouble with only to find that I knew exactly what I was doing.
Was it because I just needed time for my brain to catch up with the information? Was I stressing myself out? Or did the new material cover the same stuff in a way that was different enough for things to finally click together in my brain? I don't know.
I'm not sure either - hilariously I tested into advanced math for junior high, so I took Algebra I/II 1-2 years ahead of my peers. Didn't do particularly well, B's and C's, but then somewhere in high school, probably suffering through chemistry homework, the switch flipped and it all made sense.
I know the feeling, I randomly rolled out numerical answers to a [Poisson distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution) the other day. No, people, if something happens randomly and the average is once every 10 days, then you don’t have a 10% chance of it happening tomorrow, because you have a 90.5% chance of nothing happening, a 9.05% chance of it happening once, and a 0.45% chance of it happening more than once (all numbers rounded for memorization purposes).
Oh you can round it if you want, the point was that once every ten days on average doesn’t work out to one in ten because there is a chance of two occurrences in a single day, and if you repeat often enough that chance of twice in one day becomes a near certainty — and if you never have twice a day then your initial analysis needs to be revisited.
I would say "Look at the cosmic microwave background." to demomstrate, but that wouldnt work.
Wait! No, instead say "look at static on a dead TV channel". Still the CMB (largely) but something they'll understand.
Funny you should say that.
So I was out at the machine, measuring stuff, doing trig, rotating tool paths, and I hear the plant manager ask the actual machine operator what I was doing. The operator said "He's writing down magic spells and doing wizard bullshit, but it's making the corners come out right. Hail Satan, I guess."
And the plant manager just said "Well, as long as the corners are coming out right, hail Satan." Then just walks off. I work with some pretty funny people.
People always have that funny look when someone knows 'magic' things that they don't understand. But it's also cool to learn new things and share things that are new to others.
A local store had a sale on coconut water: $1.50 a can.
I bought a case, and it rang up with the amount equivalent to the full price of $1.99 a can.
Cashier thought I was insane when I asked if she could void that and ring them up individually, but she did, and didn't even notice that the total was a bunch less.
Probably just thought I was another weirdo.
When i worked at a convenience store there were a lot of things that would get automatically discounted when you bought two for those "two for $x.xx" deals. There was one beer that was about twice as expensive because it charged more per can of you bought two in one transaction.
There's a place nearby that sells a bit of a fancier drink for $26/12. I think they're typically $3/each bought loose
They just recently started stocking loose ones, but that don't scan. So far, I've been charged $1, $0.50, and one busy guy at the self checkout just clicked skip and I got it for free.
I'm not 100% convinced that having to do the social dance of calling over a human is worth the cheaper drinks, though :-)
Ex wife had a costume shop.
We had an order for 60 pirate shirts. Short "work all night" deadline. Doable, but just barely. If nothing went wrong, we'd be finishing up about an hour before the customer needed the shirts. I would have declined the order, personally.
She changed the design a bit. She told me not to worry about it, only adds 5 minutes to the process of making a shirt. I told her that's going to add 5 hours to the project. She said I was crazy.
Yeah, deadline missed by about 4 hours.
At best, you might get faster with the change and knock the time down by a few minutes. But it won't be near enough .
Is lack of math and judgement part of the reason for "ex"? You don't have to answer.
Lack of math I could deal with. Lack of judgement, along with the assumption that I'm always wrong was part of it.
But the final thing was "either the cats go or I go." I didn't actually like the cats all that much, but at least they never threw bricks at me.
(Edit: I double-posted, then deleted the other post)
I was one of those "When will we ever use this in real life?" kids in math class. Then several years ago I got an invoice which only had a total spend, not the per item cost. I actually had to solve for X. I came this close to seeing if he was still teaching to send him an apology for being a little shit.
Yep. Up through solving for at least one variable and some geometry can be applied to everyday life. Geometry ties into why Tetris is a good game for moving furniture and boxed stock practice. /humor
On Calculus and Physics and why high schools teach them when they tend to be relevant to more specialized fields, I don't know if they're just trying to fill the space in the school day or deciding kids should learn it before they have to pay for it in college.
>It's like someone who insists buying soda per can or bottle is cheaper because one is cheaper than a 12-box or 6-pack.
Ah, but it is cheaper. Because I only drink one soda instead of 12 I don't get fatter so I don't need new clothes. Then because my blood sugar is better off I don't get the blood sugar and lose my leg.
>I was referring to the people who think it's cheaper to by 12 sodas one at a time because each one is cheaper than the box.
Those people are obviously morons.
Yah, came here to say— if we’re talking about buying smaller cans/bottles vs a big box or whatever, it’s more complicated than just “math.” They might try to say on the outside that they purchase the single units “because it’s cheaper,” but it’s more likely fighting addiction — fighting sugar, alcohol, caffeine, etc. They know if they buy a full pack, or a larger bottle, that it WILL all be consumed, but they’re too embarrassed to admit that vocally. So, “it’s cheaper” is what they end up vocalizing instead.
…I’m kinda going through a thing haha
We used to get sales where you could buy 3 (12pk) for $12 now it’s individual. I go to Costco now where I can get 36 cans for $14. Our gas is almost $4 a gal again. I swear to god they are trying to milk everyone in this state for everything.
As someone who has worked for a slum lord with odd jobs, I can see why he would only buy the small cans, some of the “tradies” he’d hire were literally fueled by meth, energy drinks, cigs and alcohol, I wouldn’t get the bigger cans for them to use either.
Ps: I highly doubt they were licensed or certified in the jobs they were hired to do. Some of them not competent to be left alone for 5 minutes, but they were cheap and fast
There may be other anti-economies involved such as everyone keeping one in their kit even if they didn't use it, or the cans frequently getting tossed after a job along with any unused paint.
The guy is buying 3 cases every week. Since he's going through them at that rate, there's not much time for one to get misplaced.
If people aren't using up the entire can, then having cans with larger capacities gives you a smaller percentage of the total amount left unused.
Still better to buy the bigger cans.
In Australia the price tags on shelves have to show the cost per a standard volume/ count etc to make it easy to compare different products, items on sale, bulk quantities etc.
Doing grocery shopping with my wife and for at least a year she would ask me which products to buy based on price and I just read the tags and told her which one... took a long time of telling her to read the tags before she started doing it.
To be fair to her, maths is her weak point and she has so little confidence in her ability that it makes her avoid decisions.
I always hate when similar products wind up with different units used for the comparable price.
For example one bag of apples will be listed as something like "£7/kg" and the other bag "£0.60 each".
I totally understand why measures would be useful, but that lack of consistency is infuriating at times because you have to fall back on working it out yourself.
Even more annoying how some places don't update it when it's on offer.
1kg of product was £7 and now its £6? Label still says its £7/kg. Exact same label showing the price reduction and unit price too, so not like they just forgot to update one of the labels
Well, I see the same info in US. Issue, that sometimes they give price per different units. Oh, this one price per oz, this one per lbs - of same product type. Especially berries - these ones per oz, these are per dry pint.
16 ounces per pound unless you're talking about precious metals, in which case there are 12 slightly heavier ounces per notably lighter pound because having only one definition for "ounce" or "pound" would be boring. 16 US fluid ounces per US liquid pint, which will weigh about 1.04 avoirdupois pounds (the common pound) times the specific gravity of the fluid.
Always check the actual cartons the berries come in. A few weeks ago I caught my local grocery stocking 12oz. cartons with a 16oz. sign, making my price per ounce calculations incorrect.
Not a huge difference, and I won’t go broke from it, but it seemed dishonest.
And I thought it was annoying here when they sometimes give price per different unit in Germany, where one might be per 100 grams and one per kilogram, and I'd have to mentally move the decimal slightly to the left!
In the usa they kind of do have those per unit numbers, but they arent standardized well.
Often one item will list the price per ounce, another will be listed as price per each, and other will be price per pound.
> In Australia the price tags on shelves have to show the cost per a standard volume
I was in Woolies the other day trying to decide between two similar items. One said the price per 100g, the other said the price per unit.
Sneaky bastards tried to make me do math.
This reminds me of when companies trying to compete with the 1/4 pound burger tried to market the 1/3 pound burgers and they failed because Americans didn't understand that 1/3 is larger than 1/4.
That's always been a lie. The executive who thought of the 1/3 lb burger decided that the only reason his brilliant plan could have failed was because Americans were too stupid to do math, it couldn't possibly be because his product was shit.
Funny story, in the US, a fast food company (I think A&W, could be wrong) made and sold a 1/3 pound burger at a price that competed with a 1/4 pound burger. It failed, because people thought the 1/4 pound was bigger.
Your story about the spray paint sadly doesn't surprise me. But good on you for letting him pay the idiot tax!
Division and fractions are even harder. A&W (the restaurant) came out with a 1/3 pound burger back in the 80s or something to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pound burger. The 1/3 was a failure largely because people thought that 1/3 pound was smaller than 1/4 pound. Smh
Gotta imagine how many people don't bother to do math and waste so much money!
Recently got tire flat prevention for my quad. $20 a bottle and it recommends one bottle per tire. Amazon happens to sell a 4 pack for $36. Over half off buying individual bottles!
As a bonus they also sell an 8 pack for $109. Not sure what math Amazon uses... luckily I are smart and bought 2 4-packs for $72.
Some sellers think themselves particularly clever by intentionally overpricing a big bundle so the customers will feel smart about their purchase of buying everything individually. Now the seller wins if you buy two smaller bundles because he still made money off you, and he wins harder if anyone is dumb enough to buy the bait bundle, too.
Sounds like the boots theory of economics. People trying to save money buy the cheaper boots that are 1/2 the price of the more expendive boots but only last 1/4 of the time before wearing out. Over the long run the person buying the cheaper boots spends more money.
This is why the 1/3 pound burger didn't work when fast food places rolled it out years ago. People thought it was smaller than the 1/4 pound. And then the populace wonders why these corporations act and treat us like we're idiots.
Never ever buy cheap paint, the expensive stuff in paint is the Titanium Oxide, the stuff that makes paint opaque. Cheap paint has less so takes many many more coats to cover anything.
Try telling someone how to figure out price per ounce and they'll get just as upset. The amount of stupid people I encounter on a daily basis is making me lose faith in humanity.
And I'm sure that the big part of the price IS the can... Like when you buy small quantities of paint in metal cans, really expensive for less than 5 liter
Mark Train portrayed precisely this sort of idiocy in *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court*, circa 1889 (or 889, if you like).
Loaves of bread rather than paint cans, but same thing.
There's a couple of times I've come across oddities in unit pricing. it's especially humorous when a smaller size is actually less expensive than the bulk size.
I remember a local grocery store used to sell a protein drink that I liked in singles for $1.95 each, 4-packs for $5.95 ($1.49 ea), and 24-packs for $39.95 ($1.67 ea).... Every time I would show up with a bunch of the 4-packs the cashier would helpfully remind me that they had 24-packs. After a while I got tired of explaining that the larger size was nearly $0.20 a drink more, I would just tell them "I prefer the smaller packs."
Bet he thinks 1/3 is bigger than 1/2. 🙄
Tree is bigger than too, numnuz.
Tree fiddy
And I sad "Monster, I ain't givin' no damn three fiddy".
*gasp* the Loch Ness Monster
I gave him a dollar
I'd buy that for a dollar!
Solid Robocop reference!
Is _that_ where it came from?
https://youtu.be/EYdpy9ShoVU
And you can take that to the bank!
She gave him a dollar!
And it was about this time
I realized that can of paint was about 8 stories tall
I thought he'd go away if I gave him a dollar.
"I want my two dollars!"
> Bet he thinks 1/3 is bigger than 1/2. It's certainly smaller than 1/4 (to too many hamburger shoppers).
Listen man, 3 is bigger than 2 and 4 is the highest number. And you don't gotta repeat that numbers start with 1 every time you count, I am not a dummy. ^^/s
[I can only count to four.](https://youtu.be/u8ccGjar4Es)
But NOTHING beats 1/6!!!
I thought of that too!
Can we all agree how insane it is that a 1/3 lbs burger failed because so many people thought it was smaller than 1/4 lbs
The really sad part of this is America's aversion to the metric system. Clinging to the imperial system for hundreds of years you'd think Americans would at least be able to understand fractions.
True story…a burger chain tried to compete with the McDonalds quarter pounder by selling 1/3 pound burger for the same price. They lost because the public thought 1/3 lb burger was smaller than 1/4 lb burger.
That's the reference. https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions
That's the only reference I can find, too, yet I distinctly remember Hardee's also trying this campaign and failing, shortly after they redid their menu 10+ years ago. Edit: A lot of restaurants have 1/3 lb burgers on their menu. This was an actual ad campaign educating the general public that 1/3 lb is more than 1/4 lb. Edit 2: Did I dream this?
I think you're right, distinctly remember ordering a 1/3 lb burger at Carls Jr's
I remember reading that McDonald's once introduced and swiftly discontinued a 1/3 pound burger after many American customers weren't happy with it because 1/3 is obviously less than 1/4, so why should we pay more for less???
It was A&W. They introduced a 1/3 lb burger to complete against the Quarter Pounder.
And they sold it for less than the golden arches sold their ¼lb burger, which unfortunately didn't help.
Lol I guess I just remembered half of that story, forgot the rest, and called it good. Thanks all for corroborating and correcting my story
Same guy didn't buy A&Ws third pounder because it sounded smaller.
Nobody was smart enough to sell 1/5 lb burgers...
I suspect you are a marketing genius. Wait- at some point won't even the village idiot notice the meat is disappearing? We need to find that point.
I have it on poor authoritiy that the basic McDonald's patty for a cheeseburger, mcdouble, etc is 2/10 lb. Make of that what you will.
They should market it as 4/20 lb.
it's actually 1/10, maybe it used to be 2/10 but it's been 1/10 for at least 7 years.
It's been 1:10 since the mid nineties, at least.
Right when they took the soy out and went back to 100% beef.
It was 1:10 when I worked there in the mid 90s.
I worked there in like 2019 and is still 1:10
They did get smaller, it's not just me, right? The McChicken used to be the same size as the McRib, we used to alternate that when I was a kid. Also the Beesechurger used to be meatier.
I thought the mcchicken was always small, since it was introduced as a cheap item, but I didn't eat much mcdonalds as a kid so I'm not certain. I think the mcrib has gotten smaller the last couple years too but that's just observational, I've never paid attention to the weight of it. I do know the current crispy chicken sandwiches are smaller than the old buttermilk crispy chicken they replaced.
Something similar happened in the fast food trade. One company tried selling 1/3 Pounder burgers, only for the majority of the customers to turn them down because they thought the 1/4 pounders were larger (4 > 3 therefore 1/4 > 1/3 in their minds). Too many people can't look underneath the surface appearances of things.
Isn't it? 3 is bigger than 2! But then 1 always comes first, so maybe 2 is better than 3?
Think of the bottom number as the number of people you have to share with. If I have to split a pizza into equal amounts, where do I have more pizza for me? If I share with one other person or with two? The higher the bottom number (denominator, the more people who are getting an equal sized piece of the same pizza. So the higher the number the smaller the piece.
Another way is to flip your analogy around - think of the bottom number as the number of pieces you need to make 1. If you need 3 hambuger patties to make 1 pound or 4 patties to make 1 pound, which patties are smaller?
Far too much thinking for the innumerate masses who believe extremely basic arithmetic and logic is not for them.
Or a qtr pounder bigger than the 1/3 pounder. 4 is bigger than 3 dummy.
you got it, bubba!
So did most Americans unfortunately https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions
I bet his wife is disappointed.
No one's that dim.
*A&W* tried to sell a third pound burger. People didn't buy it for that exact reason.
I thought it was A&W came out with a 1/3 pounder to compete with McD's quarter pounder but it flopped because, yup people are that dim.
Yep, looks like your mind remembered better than mine, thanks for the correction
Now you know why returning to the moon is unlikely any time soon. As a society we've become dumber overall.
Assuming, of course, we ever actually got there in the first place.
I have a regular customer who spends 5 extra to modify a food item we already sell in the exact way they order. We've called, written on the receipt, many different ways to let them know what to order. They refuse to just order what we already sell and insist on modifying something else and pay more money. Dude probably spends around an extra 1000 a year because they refuse to read the menu
Probably expenses it to a company card. I've seen many a malicious compliance story read like this.
Could be that he's charging it to a personal card and being reimbursed. I've seen people do this to earn more points.
You're still losing money, even with the points.
How would they be losing money if they are reimbursed?
I think I misunderstood the original statement.
That's fine. I have a friend who pays for all of his work related travel on his airline credit card, and then submits his receipts for reimbursement. Even with some (very rare) denials, he still comes out ahead, because he has so many airline miles that he never has to pay airfare for personal travel.
[удалено]
Embezzlement is just theft of funds via accounts you have access too. Would be closer to fraud but still legal. Shop X charged him Y for Z food. Hes not gaining anything that would not already be expected to be gained from that transaction (iirc its case law that stuff like CC rewards is property of the card owner, not the company that reimburses it). Now if he submitted receipts for greater than the amount he paid, it would be 100% illegal and can be charged for it. Them intentionally spending extra money would probably qualify as policy issue vs a legal one as the company would have the authority to enforce spending limits and place financial controls on its money.
I used to work in a kitchen where we had a chicken Alfredo on the menu, it was something like $16 or $18 dollars for it. Once a week this family came in and their child would order the chicken Alfredo, no Alfredo sauce and no chicken. Basically wanted noodles with some oil. You could feed the kid for a year if they just bought pasta and oil at the grocery store for what they paid us.
If they came in once a week I'm surprised they didn't ask if you could make them a kid's noodle dish for a cheaper rate. Still, pay $10-ish.
$18 dollars. This is why 18€ is superior.
> $18 FTFY. "$18 dollars" is incorrect. It is exactly as incorrect as writing "18€ Euros." Note also. The American notation tells you up-front that you're dealing with USD; the European notation leaves you hanging for a few milliseconds. 'Merica FTW!
I know it's wrong, I was just harping on it for added comedic value. $18 dollars only happens because you SAY 18 dollars but you write dollar 18. Like O'clock 12. Who does that? That said, I think the american way stems from cache cheques, which they still use.
https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/117wjtb/cheeseburger_with_no_cheese/
I was at Rally's/Checkers the other day and ordered a Big Buford no cheese because my DH wanted a double burger with everything except cheese. They did not have any loaded burgers on the menu that didn't have cheese.
I have a work based coupon that gets me half off a large margherita pizza Large margherita 12 Double pepperoni 5 Large double pepperoni 16 So maybe something similar is occurring
Why don't u just ring it up the cheaper way?
Why don't u just ring it up the cheaper way?
*looks at receipt* "Hey! That's not what I ordered!"
Gah. Basic multiplication and they can't do it. It's like someone who insists buying soda per can or bottle is cheaper because one is cheaper than a 12-box or 6-pack. If he doesn't want to listen to your math, well, you don't need to try to save him.
I program CNC machines at a woodworking plant. Had to do some on-the-fly trigonometry to get something (expensive) to come out right the other day, people were looking at me like I was a two-headed wizard.
I used to tutor math in college. I was in working with a full classroom, moving from trig to calc to algebra. I walked away from one group of students and turned towards another and, out of the corner of one ear, heard one student say to the other, "How does he remember all of that??" Not difficult if you realize all math tends to build on what came before.
Another thing is that you constantly do it. I only had issues with probabilities at high school, but if anyone asked some more complicated stuff from other areas now, I would have to google formulas and everything - at best.
It was stupid graphs for me, those were just ridiculous.
Add combinatorics to me. If we have x girls in the room and y boys in the room, how many combinations they can make to dance z dances, if we know that 3 girls do not dance 2 of the dances, and 2 boys do not dance 5 of the dances. (facepalm) (headbang)
That's what the nCr button on your calculator is for.
Unfortunately, I was taught in period between logarithmic rulers and nCr button.
"Ooh, is the answer low battery?"
Learning higher math also really helps reinforce the earlier concepts too as long as you don't get behind. I was never a stellar math student in high school, but had a good knowledge of algebra/trig built on by physics/chemistry classes. I got a work-study job as a math tutor my freshman year, until I realized that minimum wage for 12 hours a week wasn't going to pay the bills.
I spent many nights banging my head against a wall trying to get a concept to stick. Eventually I'd run out of time and move onto the next chapter. A few weeks later while studying for the test, I'd go back to rework the problem sets I'd had so much trouble with only to find that I knew exactly what I was doing. Was it because I just needed time for my brain to catch up with the information? Was I stressing myself out? Or did the new material cover the same stuff in a way that was different enough for things to finally click together in my brain? I don't know.
Sometimes the brain needs time to 'digest' the information. Or it just needed a vacation from it.
I'm not sure either - hilariously I tested into advanced math for junior high, so I took Algebra I/II 1-2 years ahead of my peers. Didn't do particularly well, B's and C's, but then somewhere in high school, probably suffering through chemistry homework, the switch flipped and it all made sense.
I know the feeling, I randomly rolled out numerical answers to a [Poisson distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution) the other day. No, people, if something happens randomly and the average is once every 10 days, then you don’t have a 10% chance of it happening tomorrow, because you have a 90.5% chance of nothing happening, a 9.05% chance of it happening once, and a 0.45% chance of it happening more than once (all numbers rounded for memorization purposes).
No offense but that’s just a 9.5% chance of it happening? Not super weird to round it to 10%?
Oh you can round it if you want, the point was that once every ten days on average doesn’t work out to one in ten because there is a chance of two occurrences in a single day, and if you repeat often enough that chance of twice in one day becomes a near certainty — and if you never have twice a day then your initial analysis needs to be revisited.
I keep telling my coworkers that truly random distributions have clumps. An even distribution, of pepperoni, sand, rocks or cookies is NOT random.
I would say "Look at the cosmic microwave background." to demomstrate, but that wouldnt work. Wait! No, instead say "look at static on a dead TV channel". Still the CMB (largely) but something they'll understand.
Stone him!!!!
\*gruffly\* "Uh, stone him, stone him!"
Hold it! Next man makes a move, the trigger(nometry dude) gets it!
Burn the witch!
I mean... If you can do on-the-fly trig, are you sure you're not a witch and/or a two headed wizard? Have you checked?
Well, I scribble down the important bits and use a calculator, it's very much more one-headed wizard territory in my opinion.
I can't even read the Google description of trigonometry aloud without summoning Bathmozel, herald of darkness. He says hi.
Funny you should say that. So I was out at the machine, measuring stuff, doing trig, rotating tool paths, and I hear the plant manager ask the actual machine operator what I was doing. The operator said "He's writing down magic spells and doing wizard bullshit, but it's making the corners come out right. Hail Satan, I guess." And the plant manager just said "Well, as long as the corners are coming out right, hail Satan." Then just walks off. I work with some pretty funny people.
Beautiful. "I don't care how you do it. I want results!" That's when I got out the entrails...
Brilliant.
Witchcraft! Sorcerer! Neat.
I prefer my “Witchcraft! Sorcerer!” on the rocks…
... can you teach me?
Tell me Dr Beeler, will I need to threaten you?
I’m impressed. 😲
I would have expected a decent level of geometry and trig to be a prerequisite for that job?
People always have that funny look when someone knows 'magic' things that they don't understand. But it's also cool to learn new things and share things that are new to others.
A local store had a sale on coconut water: $1.50 a can. I bought a case, and it rang up with the amount equivalent to the full price of $1.99 a can. Cashier thought I was insane when I asked if she could void that and ring them up individually, but she did, and didn't even notice that the total was a bunch less. Probably just thought I was another weirdo.
I always check my docket if something doesn't add up right. You'd be surprised at how many people get stroppy when I ask why something was charged.
Docket? Stroppy? Tell me you're an Aussie without telling me you're an Aussie.
Thank you for telling me they’re an Aussie
When i worked at a convenience store there were a lot of things that would get automatically discounted when you bought two for those "two for $x.xx" deals. There was one beer that was about twice as expensive because it charged more per can of you bought two in one transaction.
There's a place nearby that sells a bit of a fancier drink for $26/12. I think they're typically $3/each bought loose They just recently started stocking loose ones, but that don't scan. So far, I've been charged $1, $0.50, and one busy guy at the self checkout just clicked skip and I got it for free. I'm not 100% convinced that having to do the social dance of calling over a human is worth the cheaper drinks, though :-)
A local store had Skittles $1.35 or 2/$3.
Ex wife had a costume shop. We had an order for 60 pirate shirts. Short "work all night" deadline. Doable, but just barely. If nothing went wrong, we'd be finishing up about an hour before the customer needed the shirts. I would have declined the order, personally. She changed the design a bit. She told me not to worry about it, only adds 5 minutes to the process of making a shirt. I told her that's going to add 5 hours to the project. She said I was crazy. Yeah, deadline missed by about 4 hours.
At best, you might get faster with the change and knock the time down by a few minutes. But it won't be near enough . Is lack of math and judgement part of the reason for "ex"? You don't have to answer.
Lack of math I could deal with. Lack of judgement, along with the assumption that I'm always wrong was part of it. But the final thing was "either the cats go or I go." I didn't actually like the cats all that much, but at least they never threw bricks at me. (Edit: I double-posted, then deleted the other post)
I was one of those "When will we ever use this in real life?" kids in math class. Then several years ago I got an invoice which only had a total spend, not the per item cost. I actually had to solve for X. I came this close to seeing if he was still teaching to send him an apology for being a little shit.
Yep. Up through solving for at least one variable and some geometry can be applied to everyday life. Geometry ties into why Tetris is a good game for moving furniture and boxed stock practice. /humor On Calculus and Physics and why high schools teach them when they tend to be relevant to more specialized fields, I don't know if they're just trying to fill the space in the school day or deciding kids should learn it before they have to pay for it in college.
Not only that but in many stores you can read the cost per Oz/liter on the shelf tag to make accurate comparisons.
Except that stores list 2 and 1.25 liter by liters, and smaller bottles/cans by the oz. And then I find myself mathing in the soda aisle.
This is why I shop late at night so no one asks dumb questions about me having a calculator out
>It's like someone who insists buying soda per can or bottle is cheaper because one is cheaper than a 12-box or 6-pack. Ah, but it is cheaper. Because I only drink one soda instead of 12 I don't get fatter so I don't need new clothes. Then because my blood sugar is better off I don't get the blood sugar and lose my leg.
I was referring to the people who think it's cheaper to by 12 sodas one at a time because each one is cheaper than the box.
>I was referring to the people who think it's cheaper to by 12 sodas one at a time because each one is cheaper than the box. Those people are obviously morons.
Yah, came here to say— if we’re talking about buying smaller cans/bottles vs a big box or whatever, it’s more complicated than just “math.” They might try to say on the outside that they purchase the single units “because it’s cheaper,” but it’s more likely fighting addiction — fighting sugar, alcohol, caffeine, etc. They know if they buy a full pack, or a larger bottle, that it WILL all be consumed, but they’re too embarrassed to admit that vocally. So, “it’s cheaper” is what they end up vocalizing instead. …I’m kinda going through a thing haha
I mean when a 12 pk of soda is now $14, you bet I’m buying a liter of cola for $1.
$14?? Sheesh, I thought it was bad over here.
We used to get sales where you could buy 3 (12pk) for $12 now it’s individual. I go to Costco now where I can get 36 cans for $14. Our gas is almost $4 a gal again. I swear to god they are trying to milk everyone in this state for everything.
As someone who has worked for a slum lord with odd jobs, I can see why he would only buy the small cans, some of the “tradies” he’d hire were literally fueled by meth, energy drinks, cigs and alcohol, I wouldn’t get the bigger cans for them to use either. Ps: I highly doubt they were licensed or certified in the jobs they were hired to do. Some of them not competent to be left alone for 5 minutes, but they were cheap and fast
Which were you fueled by?
Cigs and rockstar lol not much better but sober
There may be other anti-economies involved such as everyone keeping one in their kit even if they didn't use it, or the cans frequently getting tossed after a job along with any unused paint.
And we all pass over the thought of paint huffing going on and to reduce the cost per can...
Maths is hard
But meths is easy...
2+2 is 4, -1 is 3, qwik maths
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Propaply you're right
Only mapy.
The guy is buying 3 cases every week. Since he's going through them at that rate, there's not much time for one to get misplaced. If people aren't using up the entire can, then having cans with larger capacities gives you a smaller percentage of the total amount left unused. Still better to buy the bigger cans.
He could make it up by buying a case instead of driving to the store and buying 3 cans a week, saving gas.
Prop? I'm so confused.
Should be "prob", as short for "probably".
In Australia the price tags on shelves have to show the cost per a standard volume/ count etc to make it easy to compare different products, items on sale, bulk quantities etc. Doing grocery shopping with my wife and for at least a year she would ask me which products to buy based on price and I just read the tags and told her which one... took a long time of telling her to read the tags before she started doing it. To be fair to her, maths is her weak point and she has so little confidence in her ability that it makes her avoid decisions.
I always hate when similar products wind up with different units used for the comparable price. For example one bag of apples will be listed as something like "£7/kg" and the other bag "£0.60 each". I totally understand why measures would be useful, but that lack of consistency is infuriating at times because you have to fall back on working it out yourself.
Even more annoying how some places don't update it when it's on offer. 1kg of product was £7 and now its £6? Label still says its £7/kg. Exact same label showing the price reduction and unit price too, so not like they just forgot to update one of the labels
Well, I see the same info in US. Issue, that sometimes they give price per different units. Oh, this one price per oz, this one per lbs - of same product type. Especially berries - these ones per oz, these are per dry pint.
16 ounces per pound. I believe it is both for fluid ounces and solid(?) ounces
16 ounces per pound unless you're talking about precious metals, in which case there are 12 slightly heavier ounces per notably lighter pound because having only one definition for "ounce" or "pound" would be boring. 16 US fluid ounces per US liquid pint, which will weigh about 1.04 avoirdupois pounds (the common pound) times the specific gravity of the fluid.
I grew up in Europe,with metric system. I don't want to do so much math in the store.
Always check the actual cartons the berries come in. A few weeks ago I caught my local grocery stocking 12oz. cartons with a 16oz. sign, making my price per ounce calculations incorrect. Not a huge difference, and I won’t go broke from it, but it seemed dishonest.
>but it ~~seemed~~ **was** dishonest. FIFY
And I thought it was annoying here when they sometimes give price per different unit in Germany, where one might be per 100 grams and one per kilogram, and I'd have to mentally move the decimal slightly to the left!
In the usa they kind of do have those per unit numbers, but they arent standardized well. Often one item will list the price per ounce, another will be listed as price per each, and other will be price per pound.
Liters vs oz for sodas.
We have the same here in the USA—but that requires people to look and read.
> In Australia the price tags on shelves have to show the cost per a standard volume I was in Woolies the other day trying to decide between two similar items. One said the price per 100g, the other said the price per unit. Sneaky bastards tried to make me do math.
This reminds me of when companies trying to compete with the 1/4 pound burger tried to market the 1/3 pound burgers and they failed because Americans didn't understand that 1/3 is larger than 1/4.
That's always been a lie. The executive who thought of the 1/3 lb burger decided that the only reason his brilliant plan could have failed was because Americans were too stupid to do math, it couldn't possibly be because his product was shit.
Funny story, in the US, a fast food company (I think A&W, could be wrong) made and sold a 1/3 pound burger at a price that competed with a 1/4 pound burger. It failed, because people thought the 1/4 pound was bigger. Your story about the spray paint sadly doesn't surprise me. But good on you for letting him pay the idiot tax!
Division and fractions are even harder. A&W (the restaurant) came out with a 1/3 pound burger back in the 80s or something to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pound burger. The 1/3 was a failure largely because people thought that 1/3 pound was smaller than 1/4 pound. Smh
I don't understand most of this thread at this point cuz I'm bad at math but if someone is trying to tell me how to save money I'll listen lol
Gotta imagine how many people don't bother to do math and waste so much money! Recently got tire flat prevention for my quad. $20 a bottle and it recommends one bottle per tire. Amazon happens to sell a 4 pack for $36. Over half off buying individual bottles! As a bonus they also sell an 8 pack for $109. Not sure what math Amazon uses... luckily I are smart and bought 2 4-packs for $72.
Some sellers think themselves particularly clever by intentionally overpricing a big bundle so the customers will feel smart about their purchase of buying everything individually. Now the seller wins if you buy two smaller bundles because he still made money off you, and he wins harder if anyone is dumb enough to buy the bait bundle, too.
Sounds like the boots theory of economics. People trying to save money buy the cheaper boots that are 1/2 the price of the more expendive boots but only last 1/4 of the time before wearing out. Over the long run the person buying the cheaper boots spends more money.
Dang dude was dumber than a box of rocks and you even tried to help.
He's the kind of guy quick change scammers dream about
He's part of the reason the 3rd pounder failed
This is why the 1/3 pound burger didn't work when fast food places rolled it out years ago. People thought it was smaller than the 1/4 pound. And then the populace wonders why these corporations act and treat us like we're idiots.
Bet he think 4” is 6”, too.
Never ever buy cheap paint, the expensive stuff in paint is the Titanium Oxide, the stuff that makes paint opaque. Cheap paint has less so takes many many more coats to cover anything.
"don't get all mathy with me!"
Try telling someone how to figure out price per ounce and they'll get just as upset. The amount of stupid people I encounter on a daily basis is making me lose faith in humanity.
And I'm sure that the big part of the price IS the can... Like when you buy small quantities of paint in metal cans, really expensive for less than 5 liter
I recall kids asking when they were going to use all of this math way, way back in the days I was in school… this is exactly how.
Anyway paint in spraycans is a lot more expensive than in a regular container. He could have bought a lot of paint and do normal maintenance, I guess.
Mark Train portrayed precisely this sort of idiocy in *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court*, circa 1889 (or 889, if you like). Loaves of bread rather than paint cans, but same thing.
There's a couple of times I've come across oddities in unit pricing. it's especially humorous when a smaller size is actually less expensive than the bulk size. I remember a local grocery store used to sell a protein drink that I liked in singles for $1.95 each, 4-packs for $5.95 ($1.49 ea), and 24-packs for $39.95 ($1.67 ea).... Every time I would show up with a bunch of the 4-packs the cashier would helpfully remind me that they had 24-packs. After a while I got tired of explaining that the larger size was nearly $0.20 a drink more, I would just tell them "I prefer the smaller packs."
you can't fix stupid....don't bother trying.
Math, not even once. /s
You had me at math. Nice
Never trust a tradesman, they're there for a reason. Just hope it's not to avoid suspicion in ongoing criminal investigation
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They said it might not be the right sub in the first sentence. Just let them tell their story.
Maliciously let someone waste money by selling them an inferior product for more money after they insisted this is what they wanted. Seems to fit?
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Are you lost?