Bitwise OR

The OR operation takes two bits and returns 111 if either of the bits are 111. Otherwise, it returns 000.

1 | 1  →  1
1 | 0  →  1
0 | 1  →  1
0 | 0  →  0

Think of it like a bucket with two holes in it. If both holes are closed, no water comes out. If either hole is open, or if both are open, water comes out.

When performing OR on two integers, the OR operation is calculated on each pair of bits (the two bits at the same index in each number).

5 | 6  # gives 7

# At the bit level:
#     0101  (5)
#   | 0110  (6)
#   = 0111  (7)