notation on 'much less than'

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Recently i discovered that '<<' means much less than in maths. Suppose if I say a<<10, can a be a negative number? like -100000 for instance? I saw a couple places using << but i felt like they never included the negative numbers

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DFranklin

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A << B usually means that |A / B| is small. So A can't be large and -ve.

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Iconic_panda

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(Original post by DFranklin)
A << B usually means that |A / B| is small. So A can't be large and -ve.

thanks!

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casperyc

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(Original post by Iconic_panda)
Recently i discovered that '<<' means much less than in maths. Suppose if I say a<<10, can a be a negative number? like -100000 for instance? I saw a couple places using << but i felt like they never included the negative numbers

In theory yes you can.

Because in most "real life" applications, it does not matter. Some teachers and lecturers are not being "mathematically rigirous".
But YES.

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casperyc

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(Original post by DFranklin)
A << B usually means that |A / B| is small. So A can't be large and -ve.

If you are talking about the ABSOLUTE value here, OF COURSE A CAN BE NEGATIVE.
It just means the MAGNITUDE of A compared to the MAGNITUDE of B is small.

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DFranklin

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(Original post by casperyc)
If you are talking about the ABSOLUTE value here, OF COURSE A CAN BE NEGATIVE.
It just means the MAGNITUDE of A compared to the MAGNITUDE of B is small.

I said A cannot be "large and -ve". (And obviously large was meant relative to B, as in the example the OP gave).

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