[cm2187]

You are used to see the most significant digit on the left, but really we have to right align a column of number in order for them to be readable, whereas everything else we read is left aligned. And you don't know what this significant number corresponds to (thousands, millions, billions?) until you have read all the other numbers (if you read left to right).

As for SQL, you write

SELECT TOP 10 ColName FROM TableName WHERE X = 10 ORDER BY ColName

and the server reads

FROM TableName WHERE X = 10 SELECT ColName ORDER BY ColName TOP 10

It is not "mostly" the right order.

And right to left assignment for mathematics or programming.