Comparing whole numbers

Determine whether 394 is greater than or less than 397. Then write the expression that shows this using either this symbol or that symbol, and this is actually the less than symbol. 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. So first of all, let's just look at the two numbers: 394 and 397. So let me write them down. 394 and the other number is 397. Now, they both have 3 hundreds, so their hundreds place is equivalent. They both have 90 with that 9 there, but this is 300 plus 90 plus 4 and this is 300 plus 90 plus 7. And we know that 4 is less than 7. If you look on a number line, 4 comes before 7. If you're counting the 7, you're going to pass up 4, so 394 is less than 397. And the way that we write that, we would just write 394 is less than 397. And the way I remember that this means 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 it 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 onto or the side that has 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.