&gt;or even &quot;result&quot; - because they convey so little meaning.<p>How can anyone write a sin function like:<p><pre><code>  result = sin(degrees*PI&#x2F;180);
  return result
</code></pre>
when you OBVIOUSLY should be writing:<p><pre><code>  sin_of_degrees_times_pi_divided_by_180 =    sin(number_of_degrees_in_degrees*PI&#x2F;180)
  return sin_of_degrees_times_pi_divided_by_180
</code></pre>
One is unreadable garbage.  (Result?  WTF does that mean)?  While the other is clean, maintainabe code.  Anyone can tell at a glance what sin_of_degrees_times_pi_divided_by_180 holds.  But result?  In a function that calculates sin values?  You might as well label your variables OX00001, OX000002 and so forth.