3.1 Arithmetic Operators (BT101CO)

These operators follow the standard rules of mathematics.

• Addition (+): Adds two operands.
  10 + 5 → 15
• Subtraction (-): Subtracts the right operand from the left.
  10 - 5 → 5
• Multiplication (*): Multiplies two operands.
  10 * 5 → 50
• Division (/): Divides the left operand by the right and always returns a float (decimal).
  10 / 4 → 2.5

Python includes specific operators for handling remainders, powers, and integer-only division.

Modulus (%)

Returns the remainder of a division. It is highly useful for checking if a number is even or odd (e.g., x % 2 == 0).

10 % 3 → 1 (because 3 goes into 10 three times with 1 left over).

Exponentiation (**)

Calculates the power of a number (Left operand raised to the power of the right).

2 ** 3 → 8 (2 × 2 × 2)

Floor Division (//)

Divides the operands and discards the fractional part, returning only the whole number (integer).

• 10 // 4 → 2 (the .5 is dropped).
• -10 // 4 → -3 (it rounds toward the lower integer).

Python handles calculations between integers and floats automatically through Implicit Type Conversion.

• Int + Int = Int (5 + 5 = 10)
• Int + Float = Float (5 + 5.0 = 10.0)
• Float + Float = Float (5.2 + 4.8 = 10.0)