Comparing whole numbers

determine whether 394 is greater than or less than 397 then write the expression that shows this using either well this symbol or that symbol and this is actually the less than symbol and we'll think a little bit more about how to remember that that is the less than symbol and this is the greater than symbol greater than so first of all let's just look at the two numbers 394 and 397 so let me write them down 394 394 and the other number is 397 397 now they both have three hundreds so they're hundreds place is equivalent they both have 90 with that nine there but this is three hundred plus 90 plus four plus four and this is three hundred plus 90 plus seven and we know that 4 is less than 7 if you look on a number line four comes before seven if you're counting to seven you're going to pass up four so 394 is less than 397 and the way that we write that we would just write 394 is less than 397 and the weight the way I remember that this means less than less than is that the smaller number is on the side that has kind of a smaller side you can imagine this side is much smaller than this side over here we could also write the other way we could write 397 is greater than 394 and once again the bigger number is the side that this little thing is opening on to or the side that has a I guess the bigger side of this symbol right here this point is the smaller side this out here is the bigger side that's where you put the larger number greater than less than