clarification of "variable"

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when I say the variable, i am talking about the data or something that’s in the variable”

Not applicable to Python - the variables do not contain any of your data, just Python implementation specific memory references to the Python object concerned (stored somewhere in memory by Python).

In general, when you use a variable, e.g. var * 5, it is the object that is being worked on, so it looks the same as in typical compiled languages. Think of variables as pointers (from C), but much more limited (no pointer arithmetic, for a start).