which would you say sounds more correct?
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our answer 

we think of words like "smaller" or "larger" in the context of numbers to refer to the magnitude of the number, not absolute directions on a number line
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our answer 

@Felthry I agree. To talk about direction along the line I'd use the words "lower/higher" or "lesser/greater"

re: our answer 

@socks honestly slightly surprised! the impression we got is that the Official Mathematical Convention™, such as it exists, is that smaller/larger are always synonymous with lesser/greater, and we assumed that you, being a mathematician, would probably follow that convention
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re: our answer 

@Felthry It is the convention but it's counterintuitive so I don't like it!

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re: our answer 

@socks it seems a lot of people find it counterintuitive going by the results so far! probably best to avoid that wording, like you said
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