< is greater than?

[kfcSmitty]

Is this ever true? Someone made a post on another forum I frequent and posted that they were looking for people <17 years of age.

Everyone made the assumption that he meant less than 17 years, but he says that in mathematics, which he is a major in, < means greater than.

I've tried Googling it but I have found no results.


Anyone know when < actually means greater than?

[JuggaloBrotha]

< is the less than symbol

If someone's looking for < 17 plug in a number on the left and see if it fits: 15 < 17 is true whereas 19 < 17 is not true.

So the guy is either mistaken in this case or he's a pedo looking for kids....

[FunkyDexter]

He may be a Maths major but he's also an idiot.

[kfcSmitty]

Yeah, my example was to tell him to plug it into java (the site is for a game server that is written in java).

His response was

Well first of all i m not a java coder...so i actually dont know what <> means in Java language..
In Mathematics which is my devision.. < means greater than.

[I_Love_My_Vans]

Anyone know when < actually means greater than?

When you look at it upside down?

[JuggaloBrotha]

Yeah, my example was to tell him to plug it into java (the site is for a game server that is written in java).

His response was

LMAO, last I checked (a week ago) '<>' doesn't mean anything in java and will throw a compile error.

In vb '<>' is the 'Not Equal to' operator which is '!=' in c/c++/Java/c#/etc....

In their forum, ask the guy this:
If < 17 is for people older than 17 years old, does that hold true for: 19 < 17?
If he answers anything than 'no' or the like tell him he shouldn't consider math as one of his strong suits

[kfcSmitty]

LMAO, last I checked (a week ago) '<>' doesn't mean anything in java and will throw a compile error.

In vb '<>' is the 'Not Equal to' operator which is '!=' in c/c++/Java/c#/etc....

In their forum, ask the guy this:
If < 17 is for people older than 17 years old, does that hold true for: 19 < 17?
If he answers anything than 'no' or the like tell him he shouldn't consider math as one of his strong suits

Well when he said <> in java, I think he meant < or >...I don't think english is his first language.

Also, rather unfortunately, he is an administrator on the site, so I'm trying to be polite in pointing out his error. I have PMed him asking for him to explain a little further and possibly give me a link to something that proves his point, but there has been no response yet.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well first of all i m not a java coder...so i actually dont know what <> means in Java language..
In Mathematics which is my devision.. < means greater than.

If that is an exact quote of what he said, then it may be that he is only in math because English rejected him.

[zaza]

Funnily enough, the symbol itself illustrates the point.

With an = sign, the lines are parallel, meaning that their separation is the same at both ends, ie the two numbers are the same.

With < and > the separation is smaller at one end than at the other, which is where the smaller number lies. So <17 means "something that is smaller than 17"


Edit: You *could* read the above as "17 is greater than something", which has the same meaning. But convention is to read left to right, so that everybody understands exactly what you are talking about. I guarantee you that < is taken to mean x < y which is ALWAYS read as "x is less than y"

[mendhak]

Give him a wikipedia link. Nobody can argue with wikipedia, because they can simply edit the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_o...atical_symbols

[techgnome]

Give him a wikipedia link. Nobody can argue with wikipedia, because they can simply edit the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_o...atical_symbols

And since it's on the web, it *must* be true.

-tg

[JuggaloBrotha]

And since it's on the web, it *must* be true.

-tg

must be true? all things on the internet are factual and therefor are always true...

[NickThissen]

Actually the name of the "<" symbol is completely arbitrary. It could mean 'less than', such that 'x < y' is read as 'x is less than y'. It could also be named 'greater than', such that 'x < y' is read as 'y is greater than x'. Both statements are of course correct...

Furthermore, the notation "looking for people <17 years of age" is just 'slang' as far as I know. It's not a mathematically valid notation. Though, I am also sure that it means people less than 17 years of age, so my post is pretty much pointless...

[techgnome]

nick - now you're just being semantic... how ever... it still results in the same thing: 17 being the greater number. Given your statements, x is less than 17 ... so, meaning 16 or less .... even with 17 greater than x.... x is 16 or less....

-tg

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well, it's better than being anti-semantic.

By the way Nick, your post certainly wasn't pointless. I started countin the points, but quit once I saw all the 'i's that you had used. Add in the elipses, and there were LOTS of points.

[NickThissen]

By the way Nick, your post certainly wasn't pointless. I started countin the points, but quit once I saw all the 'i's that you had used. Add in the elipses, and there were LOTS of points.

Sorry, ı'll be sure to use less poınts ın the future so that you don't have to waste any tıme countıng them. Damn, sorry that was out of habıt

[SambaNeko]

He may be a Maths major but he's also an idiot.

I think this response pretty much sums it up.

[kfcSmitty]

Victory! I did not receive a response from the guy, but he changed his post.

- Age >17 Yeah yeah you were right > is greater than not <

[visualAd]

You said English is not his first language. The answer here is simple, his first language is one that reads right to left.

[SambaNeko]

The answer here is simple, his first language is one that reads right to left.

Even in the context of such languages, isn't math still the same? "x<17" means "x is less than 17" either way.

[mendhak]

VisualAd was trying to joke around there. Don't take him seriously, ever.

[visualAd]

VisualAd was trying to joke around there. Don't take him seriously, ever.

Please don't be mean to me.

[mar_zim]

You said English is not his first language. The answer here is simple, his first language is one that reads right to left.

Exactly! He's an Arab.

[akhileshbc]

Exactly! He's an Arab.

I don't think that the symbols are mirror images of that, when used in Arab language...