Number "x" to "x" ascending or descending?

Solution 1:

While it does seem awkward, I think the difference here is that it is expressing dates. If you think about it in terms of a more recent time range, like "John was out of town from Monday to Wednesday," you start with the furthest day and go to the nearest day. You wouldn't say "from Wednesday to Monday," because it would actually be saying something else. The same applies to months and years. You say "from 1982 to 1996" or "from March to June."

So, I think it is correct, even if it seems odd, to start with the furthest date and go to the nearest date.

ETA. And, along those lines, when you talk about BC, you start counting from 1 to express the year closest to the birth of Christ and then the larger the number gets, the further from the birth of Christ: the numbers get larger as you go further back in time. So you would say 250 BC to 150 BC. If this was being express as a date range in BC, which I suppose it could be, it would be 4 million BC to 1 million BC.

Solution 2:

In the case of positive numbers, a lower magnitude reflects a lower value. The exact opposite applies in the case of negative numbers. 4 Million Years ago was BC. 1 Million years ago was also BC. Since the date range is in BC, it is treated the way you would treat negative numbers. I hope that clarifies the question. Example :