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Wait… was I the only one that got taught: small number on the small side, big number on the big side?

No cute little metaphor, just deal with the bleakness of the world, kids!

I really don't get why you would need a mnemonic for a symbol that itself already is a mnemonic? How could it ever be confusing that big side is bigger than small side?

I remember learning about these in first grade and the explanation we got was "the beak of the little chick is pointing towards the bigger number" and I can't stress how much more confusing an explaination that is compared to the crocodile. Picture the following scene:

 O>
\0/
/ \

Yes that's a bird shut up. Observe the beak. Where is it pointing in this case? That's right, it's pointing the wrong way. Why did they choose this stupid explaination? Who knooooows

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.

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?

in other words:

I learned "L" for Less than

How childish!

It's obviously Pac-Man.

I used to even draw in the teeth.

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

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

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 am also an idiot who needs mnemonics to remember incredibly basic stuff. In a similar vein to OOP, I did a PhD in chemistry with substantial involvement with chiral structures and still don't really know left from right... but I never understood this one. Smaller number on the small side, bigger number on the big side always seemed really intuitive.

Also in a theoretical physics context I think of those symbols as Dirac notation more often than inequalities, but then I'm not a physicist.

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.

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 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 still think "Pervert Naruto" for PV=nRT

SOHCAHTOA

I always think that less than 3 makes a heart <3

What made the symbols finally click for me is drawing a small number line with the arrows on either end and erasing the line.