Less than and more than signs in math (inequalities)

Inequality signs in math can be used to show that one number is smaller than another number, or one number is larger than another. There are 4 inequality signs that are commonly used in math:

>             more than

<             less than

≤             less than or equal to

≥             more than or equal to

The best way to remember the inequality signs is to look at the letters in the word less and more. The less than sign points left, and the 1st letter of left is an l. The more than sign points right, and the 3rd letter of more is r.

Another method that works well is to imagine the inequality sign as a crocodile’s mouth, so the crocodile will eat the larger of the two numbers.

Example 1

Insert the correct inequality sign in the following statements:

a)            8              ?              3

The correct sign here is more than, so 8 > 3 (the crocodile eats 8 as 8 larger than 3).

b)             4             ?              5

The correct sign here is less than, so 4 < 5 (the crocodile eats 5 as 5 is larger than 4).

c)            -5            ?              3

The correct sign here is less than, so -5 < 3 (the crocodile eats 3 as 3 is larger than -5)

d)            -6            ?              -9

This time the correct inequality sign is more than, so -6 > -9 (the crocodile eats -6 as -6 is larger than -9)

Example 2

Write down all the numbers from 1 to 10 represented by these inequalities:

a) x > 7

This means we need all the numbers more than 7, so we have 8,9 and 10.

b) x ≤ 4

This means all the numbers less than or equal to 4. So our numbers are 1,2,3 and 4 (Make sure 4 is included).

c) x ≥ 8

This means we need all the numbers more than or equal to 8. So the numbers we need here are 8,9 and 10.

d) x < 6

Here we need all the numbers less than 6, so the numbers we need are 1,2,3,4 and 5.