# Symbol for “beyond”

#### Its_me_123

##### New member
Hi there,

Can anyone tell me if there is a mathematical symbol for beyond? I’m thinking possibly “>” could work?

I’m trying to say the phrase “to infinity and beyond”

I have this:

2 [infinity symbol] & >

Thanks!

#### pka

##### Elite Member
Can anyone tell me if there is a mathematical symbol for beyond? I’m thinking possibly “>” could work? I’m trying to say the phrase “to infinity and beyond”
What is beyond infinity? What do you think infinity is?
A philosophy professor of mine was fond of saying "infinity is where a mathematician hides his ignorance".

#### Its_me_123

##### New member
Hi

It was more of a play on words... from Toy Story

I just wondered if there is a way to portray “beyond”

#### Otis

##### Senior Member
Hello there, Its(sic)_me_123.

I'd probably read 2 ∞ & > as "To infinity and greater than".

The boolean operator AND is an alternative to the ampersand. I'd thought maybe ellipsis dots for 'beyond'.

2 ∞ AND

Actually, I just now searched, and I found some T-shirt ads. (They used your idea on the shirt, and my idea to describe it, heh.)

#### Its_me_123

##### New member
Hi,

Yes that’s what I found when I googled it but I thought the last symbol is “more than”

#### Otis

##### Senior Member
… I thought [that > means] “more than”
When comparing numerical values, phrases like 'greater than' and 'more than' and 'bigger than' mean the same thing.

EG:
My age is greater than your age.
My age is more than your age.
My_age > Your_age
62 > 21

In mathematics, we generally see the > symbol defined to be read as, "is greater than", but whatever works is fine with me. Cheers

#### pka

##### Elite Member
When comparing numerical values, the phrases 'greater than' and 'more than' mean the same thing.
EG:
My age is greater than your age.
My age is more than your age.
My_age > Your_age
In mathematics, we read the > symbol as, "greater than".
Here is another. I have had students who completely rebelled at this: $$\displaystyle x\ge 8$$ is read "$$\displaystyle x$$ is greater than or equal to eight.
In almost every such [not all] case when I suggested to read that as "at least" that was perfectly fine.
Now that is completely counter-intuitive to me. But by this time I was forty years older than those students. Vocabulary does change.

#### Otis

##### Senior Member
… Vocabulary does change.
True, true. (Whatever works is successful communication.)

Just out of curiosity, I googled What is the symbol for "more than" in math? and > is what I mostly saw. On the other hand, I googled What does the > symbol mean in math? and perused 13 results; 12 say "greater than" and one says "bigger than".

I've edited my post accordingly.

$$\;$$

#### pka

##### Elite Member
True, true. (Whatever works is successful communication.)
Just out of curiosity, I googled What is the symbol for "more than" in math? and > is what I mostly saw. On the other hand, I googled What does the > symbol mean in math? and perused 13 results; 12 say "greater than" and one says "bigger than".
@Otis, it seems totally counter-intuitive but 'more than or equal to' & 'less than or equal to' are more confusing than 'at least' or 'at most'.