Rather they show how a number is related to another by indicating that it is greater or less. The symbol used to represent the greater than inequality is. One way that we can remember which sign to put in between the numbers is to think of the comparison sign as an arrowhead.
Sometimes it is based on additive position sometimes on multiplicative magnitude.
This is the universally adopted math symbol of two equal length strokes joining in the acute angle at the right. Rather they show how a number is related to another by indicating that it is greater or less. In e-mail and other ASCII text it is common to use the less-than signs to represent angle brackets because ASCII does not include angle brackets. The numbers under consideration are not equal.