THE MEANING OF DATA

The word “data” appears in many contexts and frequently is used in ordinary conversation. Although the word carries
something of an aura of scientific mystique, its meaning is quite simple and mundane. It is Latin for “those that are
given” (the singular form is “datum”). Data may therefore be thought of as the results of observation.

EXAMPLES OF DATA

• Data are collected in many aspects of everyday life.
• Statements given to a police officer or physician or psychologist during an interview are data.
• So are the correct and incorrect answers given by a student on a final examination.
• Almost any athletic event produces data.
• The time required by a runner to complete a marathon,
• The number of errors committed by a baseball team in nine innings of play.
• And, of course, data are obtained in the course of scientific inquiry:
• the positions of artifacts and fossils in an archaeological site,
• The number of interactions between two members of an animal colony during a period of observation,
• The spectral composition of light emitted by a star.