Final answer:
An assignment statement is what makes a variable reference a value in a computer's memory, after the variable has been declared to reserve space for a certain data type. Variables like x and y can represent points on a line in programming, analogous to the way they are used in mathematical equations.
Step-by-step explanation:
A variable declaration is a statement that defines a variable and allocates space in the computer's memory, whereas the assignment statement is what actually makes a variable reference a value in the computer's memory. In programming, declaring a variable is telling the computer to reserve space for a certain type of data, while assigning gives a specific value to that variable. Using an equation of a line as an example, variables like x and y can be declared to take values representing points on the line in a two-dimensional space, with x on the horizontal axis and y on the vertical axis.
To understand the role of variables further, let's imagine we have declared variables b and m representing the y-intercept and the slope of the line, respectively. In a numerical example, assigning values to these variables will allow us to define the specific line's equation and calculate its shape.An assignment statement makes a variable reference a value in the computer's memory. It assigns a value to a variable and stores it in the computer's memory. For example, if we have a variable named num and we want to assign the value 10 to it, we can use the assignment statement num = 10.