A slot is a narrow opening or hole in a machine, for example the one that you put coins into to make the machine work. It is also the place on a telephone where you dial a number.

In sports, the word is used to describe an area between the blue line and the face-off circles in hockey. It’s also a position in a flying display.

Managing air traffic at busy airports is important, so airlines designate slots for arrivals and departures during specified time windows. If an aircraft doesn’t leave its slot before the window expires, it can’t use the runway for the next flight.

Computers include a variety of expansion slots, which allow you to add new hardware components. These include PCI, SATA, and NIC cards.

Slots are the most common connection between processors in computers. They were designed to make it easier to upgrade your processor, and they are still used in some modern systems.

They are also an integral part of most desktop computers, allowing you to add more memory or video cards. These types of expansion slots are known as PCI or Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots, and you can find them in most computer motherboards.

In component programming, they are a useful way to communicate with objects. They use signal information to communicate, and they are often faster than callback mechanisms.

Python’s slot functions can emit signals and connect new slots, as well as bind values. They can also have a variable number of arguments, which makes them more versatile than static functions.