A variable is a container that 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.
Now you're going to try playlab where you are given different games and you can change
the values of variables like speed, height, score, in order to change the game. You won't
have to change the algorithm of the game to change how it plays, just the variable. In
my work for Kindle and on X-ray for books, we apply variables in many different ways.
One way that you can use a variable is to store page numbers of a book. A user can increase
and decrease the size of the font on a page. Based on the font size, the number of pages
in the book can change. We can adjust it by storing the number of pages in the variable.