Inequality symbol
There are four symbols conventionally used to represent the notion of inequality.
If and
are real numbers we write:
to mean that
is strictly greater than
(that is,
cannot equal
).
to mean that
is greater than or equal to (equivalently, "at least as large as")
.
to mean that
is strictly less than
to mean that
is less than or equal to
.
We use a slash through an inequality symbol to represent that the given inequality does not hold. Thus for real numbers and
,
if and only if
if and only if
if and only if
if and only if
if and only if
or