big > small
as in the symbol is big and open on one side and small and closed on the other. It could not possibly be more literal than that.That was not how it was taught to my developing elementary brain.
Sure, but if you regularly use it, wouldn’t you think more about the symbol?
And wouldn’t it make more sense to an adult brain to see one side wider and one side smaller and continue the line in order to understand which size is bigger?
YES!
Read left to right, they make perfect sense:
Less than is <
Greater than is >
They all make visual sense:
=
≠
±
<
My teacher said “Pac-Man wants to eat the number that gives him the highest score” and that sooo stuck with me
Why not just remember that the bigger side of the symbol points to the bigger number?
Sounds like a less fun version of the same rule.
rule
Calling that a rule is weird. Like do you have a rule which side of the knife is used to cut? Which part of the toothbrush goes in your mouth? You don’t? Right, cause it’s entirely obvious.
It’s more of a consensus, than a rule. It’s only obvious because of the way we phrase it and the consensus to use that symbol. But we could’ve just as well settled on something like “x follows y” or whatever and you’d have an arrow pointing at the bigger number. Or any other number of ways to compare without using that symbol exactly. It’s more a language than anything, really. What’s important is that everyone understands the same thing regardless of what symbol we use. That’s why everyone uses it like that, not because it’s obvious.
Rule rule.
( ಠ‿< )
But the pointy end should be pointing. This phrasing could get confusing.
How childish!
It’s obviously Pac-Man.
When I taught math to young students I used alligators…Muh haa/0/
****I’m leaving the random characters that have been added to my evil laugh. They were added by Zip the orange 3 month old terror kitten
Zip pic where?
At her innocent best.
Aw, she’s super sweet! Your printer did a great job😉
in other words:
I used to even draw in the teeth.
I think I was fifteen when my maths teacher took me aside and told me my less-than symbol didn’t need a plover bird.
Do they teach this in Primary School now? I’d have thought it was still addition, subtraction, timetables, long division etc; I first encountered these symbols learning BASIC at home.
I started elementary school in 1999, yes absolutely.
I saw the angles and assumed this was a joke about Dirac notation, which I’m still convinced is a massive joke to get mathematical physicists seriously talking about bras and ket in the staff room.
I feel this deeply as a 30 year old that has to repeat in my head “Never Eat Soggy Waffles” every time I use a cardinal direction
I just use both with a footnote that reads “one of these symbols always lies, one tells the truth. Determining which is which left as an exercise for the reader”
I know someone who did their entire thesis purposely without using effect/affect, because they didn’t know the difference. Instead used “impact” and other similar words.
Affect is an action and effect just exists is how I always remembered it.
that’s a lot better than my method of remembering that effect is not a verb
Effect can be used as a verb though https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/effect
I can only imagine the impact that had on the end result’s impact. Probably didn’t have the impact they wanted on the readers who were unimpacted by the message.
I’ve always found it interesting that many people have a hard time remembering this. I feel like it’s one of those self-describing symbols.
I still think “Pervert Naruto” for PV=nRT
SOHCAHTOA
Sock it to 'er? I hardly know 'er!
Silly Old Harry caught a herring trawling off Anglesey.
