Need help with introducing or better understanding less than (<) and greater than (>) symbols when comparing decimals? Watch this hungry alligator eat the value that is greater in this animated music video from Numberock, a math music video series started by math teacher and songwriter Benjamin Hehn.

Q. Why is it important for me to learn how to compare and/or order decimals?

A. If you’ve ever gone to a store and see a list of prices for competing products, it will be really hard to make a judgment call if you can’t tell which price is the cheapest.

If you’re a football scout comparing the time of the best athletes, you’ll want to instantly be able to compare 40 yard dash times as the players complete their combine. These times are almost always expressed to the nearest 100th of a second, in order to put together a full profile of the player you are scouting.

To effectively take part in our economy, it’s also necessary to be able to understand fractional parts of %’s of ownership, often expressed in decimals, when it comes to understanding how much of a company you own.

Did you know just .001% of Apple Computers is worth about $10,000,000? Decimal places can sure make a lot of cents! The examples of understanding decimals values in the real world are almost endless!

The video above is suggested for U.S. grades four and five. For kids who haven’t yet explored fractions, Greater Than Less Than Song for whole numbers applies the same song and concept: