TIN FOIL HATS AND FRACTURED FRACTIONS

In the 1980's an American fast food restaurant chain, A&W, offered a new product, a 1/3 lb (0.15 kg) hamburger at a price competitive to McDonald's 1/4 lb (0.11 kg) burger.

It failed in the market, and, eventually pulled from distribution.

Now, it was a tasty product, as such things go, and, as stated, competitively priced, offered by a lesser known, yet well established chain. Yet, in head-to-head sales, the A&W 1/3 lb. burger failed, and failed badly.

Hence a focus group.

Long story short, and skipping snide remarks, the focus group exposed the product's fatal flaw... it was a fraction.

Oh, it was customary to sell fractions, 1/4 lb. burgers, 1/2 lb. burgers, but the 1/3 lb. burger failed.

However, the buying public, the consumer making the optimum decision for return on investment, fractured the math and reached the conclusion that a 1/4 lb. burger (0.11 kg. of meat) was a better investment than a 1/3 lb. burger (0.15 kg. of meat) for the same price.

The common reasoning seemed to be that "4" was greater than "3", therefore, ergo, and to wit, the McDonald's 1/4 lb. burger was more for the dollar than the A&W product.

Keep that in mind the next time that weird guy who used to sit at the desk next to you at a job 20 years ago, the one with the foil hat, sends you a potentially questionable claim about the relative value of some politician or program.

Just some early morning meanderings.

• Donovan Baldwin