TITLE: Mathematical symbol for 'slightly greater than'?
QUESTION [46 upvotes]: I am wondering if there is a mathematical symbol which indicates that a value is slightly greater than, or slightly less than, another value. I know there is a symbol which indicates that a value is much greater than, or much less than, another value:
$$a\gg b \qquad\text{or}\qquad a\ll b$$
I am wondering if there is a counterpart to this, which indicates:
$$a\,\text{ is slightly greater than }\, b \qquad\text{or}\qquad a \,\text{ is slightly less than }\, b$$

REPLY [4 votes]: This could be a comment, but given all the comments under the OP's question, I don't think anyone would notice it. Thus I am posting this as an answer.

I was taught that the symbols for not much less than and not much greater than are $\eqslantless$ and $\eqslantgtr$ ($\eqslantless$ and $\eqslantgtr$) respectively. This notation is a bit old-style, but my teacher said this was what he was taught when younger (which would explain why the notation is, as mentioned before, old-style).
However, it is on a slant, and my teacher did not write it with a slant; instead, he wrote the symbols as $\require{HTML} \style{display: inline-block; transform: rotate(180deg)}{\ge}$ and $\require{HTML} \style{display: inline-block; transform: rotate(180deg)}{\le}$ (each having a very long typeset command). So, $$a\,\text{ is slightly greater than }\, b \qquad\text{or}\qquad a \,\text{ is slightly less than }\, b$$ is equivalent to $$a\space\,\require{HTML} \style{display: inline-block; transform: rotate(180deg)}{\le}b\qquad\text{or}\qquad a\space\,\require{HTML} \style{display: inline-block; transform: rotate(180deg)}{\ge}b.$$ But I definitely prefer @dxiv 's comment mentioning $\gtrsim$ and $\lesssim$.