dynamic html <head> info

Somewhat general variable usage question I guess. Thanks to anyone that has a few minutes to enlighten me. Say 'head.php' contains the html <head>title, meta, etc...</head> block of text, and 'content.php' has html content, and your index page looks like: <html> <head> <? require ("/usr/local/www/dubya.org/htdocs/common/head.php"); ?> </head> <body> <? require ("/usr/local/www/dubya.org/htdocs/common/content.php"); ?> </body> </html> Can you populate variables in 'head.php' from vars in 'content.php,' even though the head was included first? (and thus already processed?) eg. having <title><?php print $pagetitle; ?></title> in the head.php, and <? $pagetitle = "my page title"; ?> at the top of the 'content.php' file.