Greater Than and Less Than Symbols

Use of Greater than and Lesser than Symbols with Numbers

The greater than symbol (>) indicates that a number is greater than another. The greater than symbol is also used to indicate that a number is greater than or equal to another number.

The lesser than symbol (<) indicates that a number is less than another. The lesser than symbol is also used to indicate that a number is less than or equal to another number.

What do you mean by Greater than and Less than Symbols?

The greater than and less than symbols indicate the relative size of two numbers. A number placed to the right of the greater than symbol is greater than the number to the left of the symbol. A number placed to the left of the less than symbol is less than the number to the right of the symbol.

What is Greater than Sign?

The Greater Than sign is a mathematical symbol that indicates that the value on the left side of the symbol is greater than the value on the right side.

What is Less than Sign?

A Less Than Sign is a mathematical symbol that is used to indicate that one quantity is smaller than the other.

What is Equal to?

• Two things are equal if they have the same value.
• Mathematically, two quantities are equal if they have the same value. Symbolically, this is expressed as “x = y”. For example, if I have three apples and you have three apples, we both have the same number of apples – three. Thus, we can say that three is equal to three. In other words, three is equal to itself.
• However, not all quantities are equal. For example, if I have three apples and you have four apples, we do not have the same number of apples. In this case, four is not equal to three.
• So, what is equal to what? In general, anything is equal to itself. For example, two is equal to two, four is equal to four, and eight is equal to eight. However, there are some exceptions. For example, one is not equal to one, because one is the empty set. The empty set is a set that has no elements.
• In addition, there are some things that are not equal to themselves. For example, two is not equal to four, because two is not equal to two plus two. In other words, two is not equal to two plus two zero. Similarly, three is not equal to three minus three, because three is not equal to zero.
• So, what is equal to what? In general, anything is equal to itself. However, there are some exceptions.

Comparison of Numbers

There are many ways to compare numbers. The most common way is to use the symbols <, >, and =.

• For example, if we want to compare the numbers 1 and 2, we would use the symbol >. This would mean that 2 is greater than 1.
• Another way to compare numbers is to use the symbol <. This would mean that 1 is less than 2.
• The symbol = would mean that 1 is equal to 2.

Tricks to Remember when to use more than Symbol and the Less than Symbol

The less than symbol (<) denotes that one quantity is less than another. On the other hand, the more than symbol (>) is used to denote that one quantity is greater than another.

Table Showing the Symbols along with their Name

The table below lists the symbols used in mathematics with their corresponding name.

Symbol Name

• + addition
• − subtraction
• × multiplication
• ÷ division
• = equality
• ≠ inequality
• < less than > greater than

Here are a few examples of the use of Greater than and Less than Symbols

2 > 1

This expression is true because 2 is greater than 1.

5 < 10

This expression is false because 5 is not less than 10.

Questions to be Solved on Greater than and Less than

1) Which number is greater: 9 or 10?

10 is greater than 9.