I don’t think I’ve ever been taught a mnemonic with animals
The small number is on the small side of the symbol, the large number is on the large side, it seems pretty intuitive to me, to be honest.
Nom nom
Submitted 5 weeks ago by HootinNHollerin@slrpnk.net to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/b08a9ebf-d42d-4cd5-84ae-961ce0105e9b.jpeg
Comments
Klnsfw@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I learned it that way, along with the = sign showing the sides are equal. But by the time I was teaching, we used Pac-Man, drawing the rest of him around the hungry mouth. I still added “another way to look at it is,” and described the spaces:
Big>little same=same little<Big
Because it doesn’t matter how your mind makes the connection, as long as it works for you.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
The Nemo file manager still managed to fuck it up. ‘Triangle pointing down means small filesizes on top, yeah?’
Hoimo@ani.social 5 weeks ago
It is weird that Z is considered a bigger letter than A. If triangle pointing down means descending order, it would be Z-A. Ergo, it must mean ascending order and small filesizes are on top just like small letters are on top.
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
“Points at the smaller thing”
Every time I watch a student stall out on inequalities I ask “it’s the crocodile isn’t it?”. Without fail, they’ve got confused by it and as soon as they hear “points at the smaller thing” they have no issues.
PwnTra1n@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
yeah its literally a graph. the bigger side is the bigger number. the smaller, surprise, smaller number.
RBWells@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I got a zero on a math test in second grade because I said “the bigger number is on the bigger side” instead of “the crocodile wants to eat the bigger number”, fuck you 2nd grade math teacher who made me hate math by being the thought police.
Rooty@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It is my firm belief that teachers who force you to regurgitate the textbook answer verbatim should be promotly sacked. They are only teaching you to obey authority figures without questioning, and we don’t need any more toadies in this world.
FiskFisk33@startrek.website 5 weeks ago
big side, big number
stevedice@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I never understood why so many people seemingly struggle with these signs to the point they need a mnemonic. The big side points to the big number and the small side to the small one. What even is there to remember?
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Look at Dr. Postdoc here
stevedice@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
That’s Mr. Dr. Professor Postdoc to you!
Hoimo@ani.social 5 weeks ago
Yeah, the symbol is the mnemonic. What does the crocodile even explain? Why doesn’t the bigger number eat the smaller numbers?
stevedice@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Yeah. It would be like saying “Oh, when I see a stop sign, I think to myself they’re the same colour a traffic light turns to when you’re supposed to stop, so I remember to stop”
PresidentCamacho@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Yeah the worst part about mnemonics like this is that its easy to think to yourself “crap, does the crocodile eat the bigger number or the smaller number?”
Never been a fan of mnemonics that can be easily flipped because my brain loves to troll me. When I noticed/heard larger side larger number, this was the only way I ever saw it again.
BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
What you describe is a mnemonic.
stevedice@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Technically. That’s not the point, though. The symbol itself has a built in mnemonic, it’s designed so you can’t forget what it means. If you wanna be pedantic, which, fair enough, we’re talking about math notation after all, add “different” before “mnemonic” in the original comment and the point still stands.
orbitz@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
As a kid I saw it as an arrow pointing, it points to the small number. That’s how I remembered it. I can now understand it ‘facing’ the big number but it was never pointing any direction other than the point, which is to the smaller one. Now I understand it eats the bigger one but it took awhile to see it as anything but an arrow point, if they drew them with teeth I’d have understood the eating better as a kid but I don’t think any teacher did that. I never had trouble understanding overall so wasn’t an issue.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
< is part of a K. The K stands for Kleiner which means smaller in German/Dutch
dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
< is a collapsed L which could be a shortened to “Less than”.
…Not that I’ve ever used this, I always picture a crocodile.
KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Alternatively you could see it as an angled g without the hook
kamills@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I’m a mechanical engineer, and I often have to do a double thumbs up with my hands like b_d. It’s the only way I can remember what comes first in the alphabet. In danish you spell boat båd, and if you mess up the order the b and d will be on the outside of the boat and drown, like dåb. Still works 20 years later
UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Do you have dyslexia or something like that by chance? I don’t think I’ve met anyone who gets confused between b and d. (No offense, I’m just intrigued)
kamills@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I don’t have dyslexia. But I did only learn how to read and write in 5th grade.
bricklove@midwest.social 5 weeks ago
I still have to mentally sing the alphabet song to double check I got the order right.
grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 5 weeks ago
Am librarian and can confirm: we all do this. It mostly comes up when shelving or retrieving books.
DavidGarcia@feddit.nl 5 weeks ago
I also have a theoretical degree in physics
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
You’re theoretically hired!
vsis@feddit.cl 5 weeks ago
AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Open end is big space. Closed end is little space.
victorz@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I honestly don’t understand how people struggle with this, but maybe it’s some kind of light dyslexia. I don’t judge people with dyslexia, obviously. It’s easy for me, as someone who doesn’t have dyslexia, to claim it is easy to see.
AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I don’t know about everyone else but before I figured out the visual clues of the symbols on my own, the only explanation I ever got was “> is greater than, < is less than” but I was a kid and there was nothing stopping me from interpreting “10 < 100” as “100 is less than 10” which confused the hell out of me.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 weeks ago
Big side big number, little side little number
victorz@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It can also be read as a statement, which can be true or false. You can fully well write “3 > 5”, but the statement is false. 👍
YaksDC@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I am 54, and still every fucking time.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
Never heard this till this meme, apparently I was under a rock… Or in Florida
YaksDC@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Not a meme, just how I was taught to remember greater than / less then operator direction
TedZanzibar@feddit.uk 5 weeks ago
I had no idea that people struggled with this so much and have come up with such crazy (to me) ways of figuring it out.
Most of the world, if asked to write down numbers 1-100 on a line, would do so left to right. The < and > symbols are arrows pointing left and right. To the left the numbers decrease (less than) and to the right the numbers increase (greater than).
All this stuff about crocodiles and ducks seems like such a bizarre way to remember it!
lefixxx@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
A mnemonic device is a mnemonic device.
I think about how the symbols have two sides, one is a point (small side) and the other is wide (big side)
BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Your explanation is no less crazy lol.
dnick@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Yes, but that’s because that’s the way your mind interpreted it, it could have just as easily thought that the arrow (little side) should point in the forward direction from left to right, so ‘point to the bigger number’.
Basically two completely unrelated things both make sense to you in the same direction, and that happened to be the direction that the the people picking the symbols also picked. If they had simply picked the opposite direction, all the people who currently struggle might find out perfectly natural and be confused as to why ‘you’ have such a problem understanding it.
Umbrias@beehaw.org 5 weeks ago
you say that but your method is only just as intuitive lol, wild how many methods work.
Antiproton@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
Here’s a wild thought: inequalities are not always written with the lower number on the left… or there wouldn’t be a need for two symbols.
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I think about it the same way I think about + and -. I don’t think at all. I just know.
c0ber@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
<3 is “less than three”, and 3 is “three” so logically < is “less than”
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
I try this, but I always get <3 mixed up with Ɛ>
BreadOven@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
#cursed
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
aww love you too bro <3
pancakes@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Also < looks like an L at an angle
blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Surely in theoretical physics, the most common use of
>is in a ket (eg.|ψ>).mellitusgull@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Crocodile want to eat cactus ?
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 weeks ago
Crocodile needs eat cactus to see window
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
That cactus is the devil!
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
arguably, it’s |ψ〉, which is not the same as >
TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
wow that’s a big difference (I have no idea what you are talking about)
Kichae@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
No? Not everyone’s doing work on quantum systems. Far from it. Most people do not need to use Dirac notation.
blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
I guess not. Its just that when I hear ‘theoretical physics’ I immediately think of particle physics (and related fields). I have this idea that in most branches of physics people just say the topic, eg. astronomy, material sciences, or whatever; and don’t usually specify whether they are doing theoretical work or experimental/empirical work. But in particle physics … my impression is that people are more likely to specify. Anyway, that’s just my own bias I guess.
droporain@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
What the bird beak pecks is meek.
RandomVideos@programming.dev 5 weeks ago
I earned it as the larger part being on the side of the bigger number
.<:
blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I’ve always been a fan of using > and < but in the general use of lesser than or greater than, however, the symbols were always interchangeable to me since it always depends on where you put the defined integer, correct?
If I want to say something is less than 37. It can either be 37 > or < 37.
Because in that scenario the imaginary integer n is always on the opposite side of the symbol.
37 > n
n < 37
So why did > ever become greater and < be less than? Doesn’t it also depend on your text is written? If people reading from right to left or down to up vs left to right and up to down, means it’s reversed.
It’s it’s trying to say is that the open part of the caret is where the bigger number is.
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
37 > n
“37 is greater than n.”
n < 37
“n is less than 37.”
Obviously both have the same meaning, but the symbols are named that way because people usually read left to right…
ytg@sopuli.xyz 5 weeks ago
So why did > ever become greater and < be less than? Doesn’t it also depend on how your text is written? If people reading from right to left or down to up vs left to right and up to down, means it’s reversed.
Yes.
>is greater than because you’re reading left-to-right. 12 > 9, read: “twelve is greater than nine”. When reading in a right-to-left script, it’s the opposite, but because of how the BiDi spec works, the same Unicode character is actually used for the same semantic meaning, rather than the appearance. Taking the exact same block of text but formatting it right-to-left yields “12 > 9”, which is still read as a “greater than”, just from right-to-left.Hopefully that makes sense.
Phlimy@jlai.lu 5 weeks ago
You just blew my mind with that unicode trivia. Super cool !
blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Neat AF.
affiliate@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
i feel like i’ve been using latex for so long that at this point my brain has been rewired to see ≤ as ‘\le’ (less than or equal to) and ≥ as ‘\ge’ (greater than or equal to), and then this dictates how i view < and > as well
psud@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
I worked for years in a data validation system. All day I was writing rules using the symbols and writing the decode of the rule in words - less than or equal to
I really don’t need mnemonics
moshankey@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Taught in Florida. It was an alligator.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I know that you can pronounce the emoticon <3 as less than three and it has for whatever reason replaced the crocodile mnemonic.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
My Mama says that alligators are ornery because they got all them teeth and no toothbrush
lectricleopard@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Say it in English grammar “GREATER than” means greater number first. And vice versa.
RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Sooo, does the crocodile face to the left or to the right?
flames5123@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I was being disruptive in first grade and kicked out of class then we learned this (ADHD and boredom). I tried to peak through the window and do the crocodile arms to learn it, but my teacher saw me and came out and told me to stand at the end of the hall. I didn’t really learn this until 3rd grade. Ironically, math was my favorite subject for all of k-12.
siipale@sopuli.xyz 5 weeks ago
I still sometimes think of pillars of one building when I think of concept of “tomorrow” because seeing those pillars was supposedly the first time in my childhood when I heard about “tomorrow”.
Lojcs@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
blandfordforever@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Another way to remember is that < is like a squished L, for “Less than”
willow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
Didn’t know so many people had trouble with this. To me they’re as different as b and d. Never had to think about it
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
And then here’s me having to have my wife help my daughter with her middle school math assignments because they entirely mystify me.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 weeks ago
The teacher who first taught me told me “Pac Man wants to get the most points” and that stuck with me
FarceOfWill@infosec.pub 5 weeks ago
Thanks I finally understood this thread, kept thinking people were viewing the crocodile/duck/whatever from above