A variable is a container you can store a
value in. When you use that variable in an

algorithm, it opens up the container and looks
at the value inside. This lets you write smarter

algorithms that behave differently depending
on the value stored in the variable. For example,

if you wanted to write an algorithm to say
Happy birthday, you're turning 10! to my little

brother, that's great now but when I run it
next year I'd want it to say, Happy birthday,

you're turning 11! I could create a variable
called age to store my brother's age and write

my algorithm to say Happy birthday, you're
turning 'age' instead. Because variable can

change, every year I can update the variable
'age' to equal 'age' plus 1. In this puzzle,

we're going to be using a variable that will
set the length of the line our artist draws.

Later on in our code, the move forward block
will look at that length variable to see what

value you've set it to.