Explain the difference between instance variables and local variables in Ruby.

In Ruby, instance variables and local variables serve different purposes and have distinct scopes within a program. Instance variables are variables that belong to a specific instance of a class. They are prefixed with the `@` symbol and are accessible throughout the entire object or instance of the class. Each object of a class maintains its own copy of instance variables, allowing objects to have unique data associated with them. The key difference between instance variables and local variables is their scope. Instance variables can be accessed and modified by any method within the object or instance of a class. They persist as long as the object exists and can hold different values for each instance of the class. On the other hand, local variables are variables that are defined within a specific scope, such as a method or a block, and are only accessible within tha....