- RAM: short term memory
- Hard drive: Long term memory
- Variables: different types of shopping bags
- One is good for frozen & wet items, another is good for vegetables
- sometimes you have to tell the computer what your bag is going to contain ("compiled" programming languages)
- in "interpreted" (dynamic) programming languages, you can change the type of bag simply by placing something else into it!
- each bag has a name that you give it--good idea to use descriptive names so you remember what you put into it!