Common abbreviation in computer science for integer division which returns the value obtained by dividing one integer by another and discarding any remainder.

for example ( 7 div 3 ) = 2

div is also often represented by /
see also mod
A slang term, used in London and other parts of Britain, for a damn fool. It reached the height of its popularity in The Eighties. Although seldom heard in this day and age, 'div' is notable for being an English word that ends with v, one of several slang words that fall into this category. Sometimes used in the form divvy, which can also mean a share or dividend, and appears in the phrase 'divvy up' meaning 'divide up'.

Also an HTML tag, often found sprinkled liberally and pointlessly in HTML email sent from Hotmail accounts:

This tag extends the alignment attributes of the <p> to groups of block like elements (paragraphs, tables and images). All the block like elements within a <div> container inherit their alignment attributes from the initial <div> tag unless, of course, the elements have their own alignment attributes.
- The HTML encyclopaedia (http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/encyc/)

In Persian mythology, a div is a malevolent spirit or demon, created and ruled over by Ahriman. The word derives from the Sanskrit root div, meaning 'to shine'; the same root gives us the devas of Indian mythology, and - if http://www.geocities.com/rastamage/BoS/Nigromancy/daimonsriddle.html is to be believed - the word devil (Chambers seems to contradict this, saying that its root diabolos originally meant 'to throw across').

Div is also an abbreviation for dividend, and in Scottish English it is a form of do (as a present indicative). Finally, it is the name of an irascible, alcoholic DivX player in the webcomic Penny Arcade.

Short for the divergence of a quantity. In an orthogonal coordinate system with coordinates {u1,u2,u3}, where a line element ds is given by

ds²=h1² du1² + h2² du2² + h3² du3²
then the divergence of a vector quantity A; is given by
div A = (1/h1 h2 h3)(δ/δu1 {h2 h3 A1} i1 + δ/δu2 {h3 h1 A2} i2 + δ/δu3 {h1 h2 A3} i3)
where i is the unit vector

In cylindrical coordinates

{u1,u2,u3} = {R,φ,Z}
{h1,h2,h3} = {1,R,1}

'Div' is usually represented by a triangle 'pointing' downwards followed by a full stop (to distinguish it from grad)

'div' is often used in electromagnetic theory. Together with its cousin the operator 'curl' it allows an elegant expresion of Maxwell's equations. For example the the empirical obervation that there are no magnetic monopoles is expressed in one of those venerable equations as

div.B = 0

See also grad.

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