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New names for old things

Ruby uses special names for things that we already know. For instance, it uses the word Float to mean "decimals". Here are more definitions:

You've already seen thee classes for things that you already know:

Old nameRuby class
integer Integer
decimals Float
text String

You have also seen several methods:

Class Some methods
Integer + - / * % **
Float + - / * % **
String capitalize, reverse,
length, upcase

Classes vs objects

Make sure you understand the difference between classes and objects. An object is a unit of data. A class is what kind of data it is.

For example, 3 and 5 are different numbers. They are not the same object. But they are both integers, so they belong to the same class. Here are more examples:

ObjectClass
   2 Integer
-5 Integer
7.2 Float
3.14 Float
'hello' String
'world' String

Class#method notation

Remember, different classes have different methods. Here are some differences that you have already seen.