A silly example
Comments and questions to John Rowe.
   These two fragments of code both calculate the distance from the
origin of a point on a plane with gradient 1 in both the x and y
directions, but one is much clearer than the other:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
int main() {
  double x, y, z, distance;
  x = 2.1;
  y = 1.3; 
  z = x + y;
  distance = sqrt(x*x + y*y + z*z);
  printf("Distance; %g\n", distance);
   
   x = 10.0;
  y = y + x;
  printf("Distance; %g\n", distance);
  
    return 0;
}
Step through this code
 double variable1, variable2, variable3;
 double i_feel_like_a_banana;
  variable1 = 2.1;
  variable2 = 1.3;
  variable3 = variable1 + variable2;
  i_feel_like_a_banana = sqrt(variable1*variable1 
    + variable2*variable2 + variable3*variable3);
  variable1 = 10.0;
  variable2 = variable2+ variable1;
  printf("Distance; %g\n", i_feel_like_a_banana);
  
Step through this code