>My question is, what do Python interpreters do with power operators where the >power is a small constant, like 2? Do they know to take the shortcut?
Nope: Python 3.3.0 (default, Sep 25 2013, 19:28:08) [GCC 4.7.2] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import dis >>> dis.dis(lambda x: x*x) 1 0 LOAD_FAST 0 (x) 3 LOAD_FAST 0 (x) 6 BINARY_MULTIPLY 7 RETURN_VALUE >>> dis.dis(lambda x: x**2) 1 0 LOAD_FAST 0 (x) 3 LOAD_CONST 1 (2) 6 BINARY_POWER 7 RETURN_VALUE The reasons why have already been answered, I just wanted to point out that Python makes it extremely easy to check these sorts of things for yourself. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list