ITP2 - OOP Tutorials - Instance Variables

You'll notice something new here. The @name variable looks different
because it has the @ symbol in front of it. This is called an instance
variable. It is a variable that exists as long as the object instance
exists and it is one of the ways we tie data to objects. It does not
"die" after the initialize method is run. It "lives on", to be
referenced, until the object instance is destroyed. In the above
example, our initialize method takes a parameter called name. You can
pass arguments into the initialize method through the new method.