Lets look at the following example. Ordering[{0, 20 Sqrt[5], 40 Sqrt[5], 20 Sqrt[5], 20 Sqrt[10]} // N] which gives the right answer > {1, 2, 4, 5, 3} but if one removes the `N` one gets the wrong answer Ordering[{0, 20 Sqrt[5], 40 Sqrt[5], 20 Sqrt[5], 20 Sqrt[10]}] > {1, 2, 4, 3, 5} Is it a bug?