<P> The symbols <and> first appear in Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas (' The Analytical Arts Applied to Solving Algebraic Equations') by Thomas Harriot (1560--1621), which was published posthumously in 1631 . The text states: "Signum majoritatis ut a> b significet a majorem quam b" and "Signum minoritatis ut a <b significet a minorem quam b ." </P> <P> According to Johnson (page 144), while Harriot was surveying North America, he saw a Native American with a symbol that resembled the greater - than sign both backwards and forwards (> and <). Johnson says it is likely he developed the two symbols from this symbol . </P> <P> The greater - than sign (>) is an original ASCII character (hex 3E, decimal 62). </P> <P> The character in Unicode is U + 003E> GREATER - THAN SIGN (HTML & #62; &gt;); this is inherited from the same value in ASCII . </P>

What is the symbol for greater or less than