Difference between class variables and class instance variables?

Also I want to add that you can get access to the class variable (@@) from any instance of the class

class Foo
  def set_name
    @@name = 'Nik'
  end

  def get_name
    @@name
  end
end


a = Foo.new
a.set_name
p a.get_name # => Nik
b = Foo.new
p b.get_name # => Nik

But you can't do the same for the class instance variable(@)

class Foo
  def set_name
    @name = 'Nik'
  end

  def get_name
    @name
  end
end


a = Foo.new
a.set_name
p a.get_name # => Nik
b = Foo.new
p b.get_name # => nil