[Tex/LaTex] How to put a small question mark over the Greater than or equals to sign

Question

I have seen people put small question marks over greater than symbols in proofs, however, I'm having trouble doing it over "≥" symbols. Using \stackrel{?}{≥} returns an error:

 Command \> already defined.
               Or name \end... illegal, see p.192 of the manual.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...
l.175 \newcommand{\>}{\stackrel{?}{?}}
?

And using \overset{?}{≥} gives the wrong symbol:

How would we type "≥" in latex without returning a question mark?

Answer 1

Use \geq instead of ≥ and define the command as

\newcommand\maybegeq{\stackrel{?}{\geq}}

or as

\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcommand\maybegeq{\overset{?}{\geq}}

Example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$x \stackrel{?}{\geq} y$

$x \overset{?}{\geq} y$
\end{document}

\stackrel and \overset differ in the way they are spaced. \stackrel{a}{b} is a relation no matter what b was (as rel in the macro name suggests), whereas \overset{a}{b} will be treated in the same way as b without \overset. If you want \overset{a}{b} to become a relation, you have to say so explicitly using \mathrel{\overset{a}{b}} or \overset{a}{\mathrel{b}}.