Question

you use a ________ when the inequality symbol is > or

Answer 1

Given two numbers a and b, three different kinds of comparison between them can be stated:

$\begin{gathered} \text{If a is lower than b: }ab \\ \text{If a and b are equal: }a=b \end{gathered}$

Sometimes, two conditions may meet:

If a is lower or equal to b, we write:

$a\leq b$

If a is greater or equal to b, we write:

$a\ge b$

If a is lower or greater than b, this means that a is different from b. In other words, if a is greater or lower than b, then a cannot be equal to b, and we write:

$a\ne b$

Therefore, we use a ≠ symbol when the inequality symbol is > or <.