More Than, Less Than and Equal

Comparing two groups

Every day we compare things. Who has more sweets? Which jar is fuller? Are these two piles the same? In math, comparing means looking at two amounts and deciding which one is bigger, which is smaller, or whether they are the same.

There are only three possible answers when you compare two numbers:

• One is more than the other.
• One is less than the other.
• They are equal (exactly the same).

That's it! Once you can spot these three, you can compare any two numbers.

Match them up

The easiest way to compare is to match the things one-to-one, like pairing socks.

Imagine 4 red cups and 6 blue cups. Line them up next to each other:

• Red: 🔴 🔴 🔴 🔴
• Blue: 🔵 🔵 🔵 🔵 🔵 🔵

Match each red cup to a blue cup. After you match four pairs, the red cups run out but there are 2 blue cups left over. The leftovers tell you the truth: blue has more, red has less.

If both rows run out at exactly the same time, with nothing left over, the groups are equal.

Meet the hungry crocodile

Math has special signs for comparing. They look like a little open mouth:

• > means greater than (more than)
• < means less than
• = means equal to

Here is the trick that makes them easy. Pretend the > or < sign is a hungry crocodile's mouth. The crocodile is greedy — it always wants to eat the bigger group. So its open mouth always points to the bigger number, and the pointy closed end points to the smaller number.

🐊 The open mouth gobbles the BIGGER number!

Let's see it:

Compare	With crocodile	We read it as
6 and 2	6 > 2	6 is greater than 2
3 and 8	3 < 8	3 is less than 8
5 and 5	5 = 5	5 is equal to 5

In 6 > 2, the open mouth faces the 6 — the bigger number. In 3 < 8, the open mouth faces the 8. Easy!

Worked example 1: which is more?

A girl has 7 stickers. Her friend has 4 stickers. Who has more?

Count and compare: 7 is more than 4. So the girl has more. We write 7 > 4, with the crocodile's mouth open towards the 7.

Worked example 2: which is less?

There are 3 birds on one tree and 9 on another. Which tree has fewer birds?

3 is less than 9. So the first tree has fewer. We write 3 < 9. The pointy end faces the small number, 3.

Worked example 3: equal groups

You have 5 crayons and your brother also has 5 crayons. Match them one-to-one. Nothing is left over on either side! The groups are the same, so we write 5 = 5. They are equal.

Why bigger numbers are easy too

What about numbers like 23 and 31? You don't need to count every single thing. Just look at the tens first. 31 has 3 tens, 23 has only 2 tens, so 31 is more. If the tens are the same, then you look at the ones. This idea comes from place value with tens and ones, which is well worth learning next.

Why comparing matters

Comparing is one of the most useful math skills of all. We use it to:

• Share things fairly — "you have more, let me give you some."
• Put numbers in order, from smallest to biggest.
• Check our work — is this answer bigger or smaller than it should be?

It also gets your brain ready for adding and taking away. When you know 8 is more than 5, you already understand that 8 has some extra ones hiding inside it. Warm up your number skills any time with our counting to 100 lesson.

Try it yourself

You will need two small piles of objects — buttons, blocks or coins.

1. Make two piles without counting. Just grab a handful for each.
2. Match them up one-to-one in two neat rows.
3. Look at the leftovers. Which pile has more? Say it out loud: "This pile is greater than that pile."
4. Draw the crocodile. On paper, write the two numbers and put a >, < or = sign between them. Make sure the mouth opens to the bigger number!
5. Challenge: Can you make the two piles equal? Add or take away objects until both rows end at the same place.

Play this a few times and the crocodile will help you compare any two numbers with a smile.