why there is a "." after the number 3600?

Question

def time_since_last_project(series):
    # Return the time in hours
    return series.diff().dt.total_seconds() / 3600.

~The code is from kaggle course, but why there is a "." after 3600?Please help me~

Answer 1

It specifies the type as float.

If you check

# Python2.7
print(type(3600.))

You will get that it is a float.

Without the period,

# Python2.7
print(type(3600))

You get int.

This changes the type of division you are using: floating point arithmetic or integer arithmetic.

Look at these two examples to see the difference.

# Python2.7
1 / 2 # = 0
1 / 2. # = 0.5

This is the significance of writing 3600., the writer of the code wanted to specify to use floating point division.