Data
The word data is the plural of datum, meaning a piece of information, or, "the given". It is also commonly used as a mass noun, where it is treated as singular, e.g., "This is all the data from the experiment". Many consider this usage incorrect, or at least colloquial, and would prefer "These are all the data from the experiment" (each individual measurement or result from the experiment is a single datum). The word datum is taking on a life of its own, however, and it is now most often used to mean a designated base point against which measurements are taken.Raw data are numbers, characters, images, or other method of recording, in a form which can be assessed by a human or (especially) input into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted on some digital channel. Computers nearly always represent data in binary.
Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information.
People or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modern societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.
see also data processing, data mining, Data Warehouse
Other uses of this term include: Data (Star Trek) (fictional android). Data is also the name of the character played by actor Ke Huy Quan[?] in the film "The Goonies."
This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.
He had expected to unearth a secret
apparently, he was unearthing a volcano!
However, Peter did the best he could. He got the names and details
and women, Jewish tailors, Russian and Italian cigar-workers,
Reds"--large, immaculate and shining ladies who came rolling up to
and left their uniformed chauffeurs outside for hours at a time
benevolent lady with a flowing gray veil, who wafted a sweet perfume
twenty dollar bill into his hand. Peter, thrilled, but also
movement," and decided that when Guffey got thru with him he might
sisters. Sadie went off to her work before eight o'clock every
home, and fixed his breakfast, and opened the door for his visitors,
invalid; twice a week she went off to a doctor to have something
be resting, but Peter very seldom saw her doing this. She was always
off to sell literature and take up collections at meetings. When she
Peter--trying to make him think as she did.
Poor kid, she was all wrought up over the notions she had got about
it, day or night, and this, of course, was a bore to Peter, who
organized in armies, engaged in slaughtering one another. That, of
it? There was no way to stop it, and it certainly wasn't Peter's
she were to blame for this European conflict, and had the job of
eyes, and her soft chin would quiver with pain whenever she talked
time. It was her idea that the war must be stopped by uprisings on
this might be hastened if the working people of American City would
Section 15
Jennie talked about this plan quite openly; she would put a.
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