Which is Bigger, a 1/3 or 1/4 Burger?

December 8, 2025 •

3 min read

Back in the 1980s, the fast-food chain A&W introduced a 1/3 pound burger to compete with McDonald's Quarter Pounder. But despite being larger and cheaper, it failed because most Americans mistakenly thought the 1/4 pound burger was bigger. This famous marketing blunder highlights a common confusion over fractions, prompting the question: which is bigger, a 1/3 or 1/4 burger? The answer is a simple matter of mathematics, but its real-world implications tell a memorable story about consumer perception.

Quick Summary

The third-pound burger is larger than the quarter-pound burger, a fact many fast-food customers misunderstood during A&W's 1980s marketing campaign. This fractional confusion, where consumers perceived 1/4 as larger because 4 is greater than 3, led to poor sales for the technically superior and larger offering.

Key Points

1/3 is bigger than 1/4: Mathematically, a one-third portion is larger than a one-quarter portion of the same whole.
Decimal conversion makes it clear: 1/3 equals ~0.333, and 1/4 equals 0.25, confirming that 1/3 is the larger value.
Visual comparison helps: Imagining a pie cut into three slices versus four slices demonstrates that the three slices are bigger.
The A&W marketing blunder: A&W's 1980s third-pounder failed because many consumers mistakenly thought 1/4 was larger than 1/3 based on the whole numbers.
Perception over reality: The story serves as a classic example in marketing where consumer perception, even if mathematically incorrect, can dramatically impact a product's success.
The Quarter Pounder was smaller, but successful: McDonald's Quarter Pounder was technically smaller but became the market favorite due to brand recognition and consumer confusion over its competitor's fraction-based name.
Burger patty weight is pre-cooked: The advertised weight (e.g., 1/3 lb or 1/4 lb) refers to the patty's raw weight before it shrinks during cooking.

Understanding the Mathematics: Why 1/3 is Larger than 1/4

To understand why a 1/3 pound burger is bigger than a 1/4 pound burger, you have to think about fractions. A fraction represents a part of a whole, and in this case, the 'whole' is one pound of ground beef. The denominator (the bottom number) indicates how many equal parts the whole is divided into. The smaller the denominator, the fewer parts you're dividing the whole into, and therefore, the larger each individual part will be.

Comparing Fractions: The Methods

There are a few easy ways to prove that 1/3 is the larger fraction:

Visual Comparison: Imagine a pizza or a pie. If you cut it into three equal slices, each slice will be larger than if you cut it into four equal slices. The same logic applies to the burger patties. A pound of meat divided into three patties yields larger portions than a pound divided into four.
Decimal Conversion: Converting the fractions to decimals makes the comparison crystal clear. The fraction 1/3 is approximately 0.333, while 1/4 is exactly 0.25. Since 0.333 is greater than 0.25, 1/3 is the larger number.
Common Denominator: Finding a common denominator allows you to compare the numerators directly. The lowest common denominator for 3 and 4 is 12. Converting both fractions to have a denominator of 12 gives you 4/12 for 1/3 and 3/12 for 1/4. Since 4 is greater than 3, it's clear that 4/12 (or 1/3) is the larger fraction.

The Famous Fast-Food Fiasco: A&W vs. McDonald's

This simple math lesson became a legendary marketing case study in the 1980s. A&W launched a third-pound burger to compete directly with McDonald's highly successful Quarter Pounder. The A&W burger offered more meat for the same, or a slightly lower, price. In blind taste tests, customers even preferred the taste of the A&W patty. However, the campaign failed spectacularly. Market research revealed that a significant number of consumers believed the Quarter Pounder was the better deal because the number '4' in 1/4 was larger than the number '3' in 1/3. They weren't comparing the fractions; they were just comparing the denominators as whole numbers. The misperception of value based on a simple numerical error killed the campaign and provided a valuable lesson in consumer psychology for marketers.

Burger Patty Size Comparison


Feature	1/3 Pounder	1/4 Pounder
Fraction	$1/3$	$1/4$
Decimal Equiv.	~0.333	0.25
Weight (Ounces)	~5.33 oz	4 oz
Weight (Grams)	~150 g	~113 g
Physical Size	Larger	Smaller
Perceived Value (1980s)	Smaller (due to consumer error)	Larger (due to consumer error)

What This Means for Today's Consumer

While most people now understand the logic behind fractions, the A&W story is a powerful reminder that marketing can be tricky. It's also a good lesson for consumers to look past simple numbers and consider the actual value and quality of what they're buying. The size of a burger patty is just one factor; other considerations like the quality of the beef, fat content, and cooking method all affect the final product's taste and nutritional value. For instance, an 80/20 lean-to-fat blend is generally recommended for the juiciest, most flavorful burgers.

The Legacy of the Third-Pounder

The A&W third-pounder story has become marketing folklore, a lesson passed down in business schools about the perils of underestimating consumer behavior. While A&W survived and even jocularly referenced the story years later, the incident highlights how perception can sometimes trump reality, even when the reality is based on basic arithmetic. It also shows how a competitor's strong brand, like the McDonald's Quarter Pounder, can influence consumer habits and expectations to an almost irreversible degree.

Conclusion

To put it plainly, a 1/3 pound burger is bigger than a 1/4 pound burger. The story of A&W's marketing miscalculation in the 1980s is an unforgettable reminder that our perception of value is not always based on hard facts. By focusing on the numbers 3 and 4 rather than the fractions 1/3 and 1/4, many consumers made the wrong choice, missing out on a larger, cheaper burger. While modern fast-food marketing is much more sophisticated, the core lesson remains: paying attention to the details and not just surface-level numbers is key to making a truly informed decision.

Visit A&W Restaurants for their official blog post on the marketing blunder.

Frequently Asked Questions

A&W's 1/3 pound burger failed in the 1980s because a large portion of consumers mistakenly believed that one-quarter of a pound was more meat than one-third of a pound. Their confusion arose from comparing the whole numbers (4 vs. 3) instead of understanding the fractions.

You can easily tell which fraction is larger by converting them to decimals. For example, 1/3 is approximately 0.333, while 1/4 is 0.25. Since 0.333 is larger, 1/3 is the bigger fraction. Alternatively, if the numerators are the same, the fraction with the smaller denominator is larger.

Yes, patty size significantly affects cooking time. Larger, thicker patties require more time to cook through, while smaller or thinner patties cook faster. Larger patties also tend to retain more juice.

The weight of a burger patty, as advertised, is typically measured before cooking. The raw weight determines the size and density of the final cooked patty, which will be smaller due to moisture and fat loss.

There are 16 ounces in a pound. A 1/3 pound burger weighs approximately 5.33 ounces (16/3), while a 1/4 pound burger weighs exactly 4 ounces (16/4). This means the 1/3 pound burger has over an ounce more meat.

The Quarter Pounder is a hamburger with a pre-cooked patty weighing a quarter of a pound, or four ounces. It was popularized and trademarked by McDonald's, becoming a highly successful menu item worldwide.

After the failure of the third-pounder, A&W eventually moved in different directions. In later years, McDonald's introduced a larger burger, the Angus Burger, but strategically avoided using a fractional name. A&W later made a joke of the incident by selling a '3/9 Pound Burger,' acknowledging the famous marketing blunder.