Kaplan Nursing Entrance Practice Exam 2025 – The All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

The 'less than' symbol in a mathematical expression signifies a relationship of comparison, specifically indicating that one quantity is smaller than another. In the context of mathematical operations, this expression does not represent a direct operation like addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Instead, it serves as a relational operator, fundamentally expressing the concept of subtraction in a comparative sense: when one value is less than another, it implies that if you were to subtract the smaller number from the larger one, the result would be a positive value.

For example, if the expression states that x is less than y (x < y), it means that when you perform the operation y - x, the outcome will yield a positive result, reinforcing the idea of the comparison. Therefore, understanding 'less than' in this context aligns closely with subtraction as it relates to comparing the differences between values, even though it is not an operation in itself.