Greater

x>y

yields True if is determined to be greater than .

x1>x2>x3

yields True if the form a strictly decreasing sequence.

Details

  • Greater is also known as strong inequality or strict inequality.
  • Greater gives True or False when its arguments are real numbers.
  • Greater does some simplification when its arguments are not numbers.
  • For exact numeric quantities, Greater internally uses numerical approximations to establish numerical ordering. This process can be affected by the setting of the global variable $MaxExtraPrecision.

Examples

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Basic Examples  (2)

Compare numbers:

Represent an inequality:

Scope  (9)

Numeric Inequalities  (7)

Inequalities are defined only for real numbers:

Compare rational numbers:

Approximate numbers that differ in at most their last eight binary digits are considered equal:

Compare an exact numeric expression and an approximate number:

Compare two exact numeric expressions; a numeric test may suffice to prove inequality:

Proving this inequality requires symbolic methods:

Symbolic and numeric methods used by Greater are insufficient to disprove this inequality:

Use RootReduce to decide the sign of algebraic numbers:

Numeric methods used by Greater do not use sufficient precision to prove this inequality:

RootReduce proves the inequality using exact methods:

Increasing $MaxExtraPrecision may also prove the inequality:

Symbolic Inequalities  (2)

Symbolic inequalities remain unevaluated, since x may not be a real number:

Use Refine to reevaluate the inequality assuming that x is real:

A symbolic inequality:

Use Reduce to find an explicit description of the solution set:

Use FindInstance to find a solution instance:

Use Minimize to optimize over the inequality-defined region:

Use Refine to simplify under the inequality defined assumptions:

Properties & Relations  (12)

The negation of two-argument Greater is LessEqual:

The negation of three-argument Greater does not simplify automatically:

Use LogicalExpand to express the negation in terms of two-argument LessEqual:

This is not equivalent to three-argument LessEqual:

When Greater cannot decide inequality between numeric expressions it returns unchanged:

FullSimplify uses exact symbolic transformations to disprove the inequality:

Positive[x] is equivalent to :

Use Reduce to solve inequalities:

Use FindInstance to find solution instances:

Use RegionPlot and RegionPlot3D to visualize solution sets of inequalities:

Inequality assumptions:

Use Minimize and Maximize to solve optimization problems constrained by inequalities:

Use NMinimize and NMaximize to numerically solve constrained optimization problems:

Integrate a function over the solution set of inequalities:

Use Median, Quantile, and Quartiles to the ^(th) greatest number(s):

Possible Issues  (3)

Inequalities for machine-precision approximate numbers can be subtle:

The strict inequality is based on extra digits:

Arbitrary-precision approximate numbers do not have this problem:

Thanks to automatic precision tracking, Greater knows to look only at the first 10 digits:

In this case, inequality between machine numbers gives the expected result:

The extra digits in this case are ignored by Greater:

Wolfram Research (1988), Greater, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html (updated 1996).

Text

Wolfram Research (1988), Greater, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html (updated 1996).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 1988. "Greater." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 1996. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (1988). Greater. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2023_greater, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Greater}", year="1996", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html}", note=[Accessed: 18-March-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2023_greater, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Greater}, year={1996}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Greater.html}, note=[Accessed: 18-March-2024 ]}