Math Doubts

Greater than sign

A symbol that expresses the comparison of a big quantity with small quantity is called greater-than sign.

Introduction

The greater-than sign is a symbol in mathematics. it is mainly used to express an inequality between two quantities by comparison.

greater than

The greater-than sign is symbolically written as $>$ in mathematics. A big quantity (or number) is written before this symbol and a small quantity is written after the symbol.

The number $6$ is a big number when compared to the number $2$. So, it is said that the number $6$ is greater than number $2$ and it is written in the following mathematical form.

$6 \,>\, 2$

Similarly, the number $3$ is a big number when compared to the number $-5$. Hence, it is said that the number $3$ is greater than $-5$ and it is written in the following form.

$3 \,>\, -5$

In both cases, the comparing numbers are not equal. Hence, the relation between them is an inequality strictly.

Algebraic form

Generally, the strict inequality with greater-than sign is written in algebraic form as follows.

$x \,>\, a$

In this example, the literals $x$ and $a$ represent the real numbers but the value of $x$ is always greater than the value of $a$.