Vertical alignment within span is not working with special characters - html

Question

I am trying to align the text vertically, but the star is not aligning, How do I align them vertically center?
.operators {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
list-style: none;
}
.operators > li {
display: inline-block;
}
.operators > li span{
font-size: 18px;
display: flex;
padding: 4px 8px;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
color: #ffffff;
background-color: #cdcdcd;
border: 1px solid #333333;
}
<ul class="operators">
<li>
<span>+</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>-</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>*</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>=</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>2</span>
</li>
</ul>

Answer 1

You could try another asterisk that is centered. Unicode Asterisk Operator with HTML entity ∗
However note that some browsers might not show this correctly
.operators {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
list-style: none;
}
.operators > li {
display: inline-block;
}
.operators > li span{
font-size: 18px;
display: flex;
padding: 4px 8px;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
color: #ffffff;
background-color: #cdcdcd;
border: 1px solid #333333;
}
<ul class="operators">
<li>
<span>+</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>-</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>∗</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>=</span>
</li>
<li>
<span>2</span>
</li>
</ul>

Answer 2

Neither the hyphen nor the asterisk are correctly aligned. This is because they are defined as to be used for different purposes, not for minus and multiply though that is how many programming languages use them as they are present on most keyboards.
The correct (i.e. consistent with the Unicode definitions) signs for minus and multiplication in HTML are
Minus: HTML − which gives you − see Wikipedia
Multiply: HTML × which gives you × see Wikipedia
For a calculator type application then these signs are probably the ones to use.
However, if you are trying to use them in some way to discuss programming then you probably need to stick to using the hyphen and asterisk. The fact that they aren't aligned with the other symbols would at least then be consistent with what the user sees when writing code in an editor.