What is the "greater than" symbol?

The "greater than" sign is >. The "less than" sign is <. An easy way to remember these is that the larger value goes on the wider side of the symbol, the side with two points. The smaller value goes on the corner side of the symbol.

Generally, these symbols are used to show inequality between two values. They are first seen recorded in writing in the book "Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas" (The Analytical Arts Applied to Solving Algebraic Equations) by Thomas Harriot. He lived from 1560 to 1621, but his book was not published until 1631.