What is Data: Definition and 998 Discussions

Data are units of information, often numeric, that are collected through observation. In a more technical sense, data are a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables about one or more persons or objects, while a datum (singular of data) is a single value of a single variable.Although the terms "data" and "information" are often used interchangeably, these terms have distinct meanings. In some popular publications, data are sometimes said to be transformed into information when they are viewed in context or in post-analysis. However, in academic treatments of the subject data are simply units of information. Data are used in scientific research, businesses management (e.g., sales data, revenue, profits, stock price), finance, governance (e.g., crime rates, unemployment rates, literacy rates), and in virtually every other form of human organizational activity (e.g., censuses of the number of homeless people by non-profit organizations).
Data are measured, collected and reported, and analyzed, and from data visualizations such as graphs, tables or images are produced. Data as a general concept refers to the fact that some existing information or knowledge is represented or coded in some form suitable for better usage or processing. Raw data ("unprocessed data") is a collection of numbers or characters before it has been "cleaned" and corrected by researchers. Raw data needs to be corrected to remove outliers or obvious instrument or data entry errors (e.g., a thermometer reading from an outdoor Arctic location recording a tropical temperature). Data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the "processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the next stage. Field data is raw data that is collected in an uncontrolled "in situ" environment. Experimental data is data that is generated within the context of a scientific investigation by observation and recording.
Data has been described as the new oil of the digital economy.

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  1. S

    Which software to use to create this graph?

    So I have a dataset with 3 variables -Time -Quantity 1 -Quantity 2 Currently I have all the data in an excel sheet. So for example, I can easily in excel create a line graph that shows me quantity 1 on the Y axis and time on the X axis... however I want to see all 3 at the same time. So my...
  2. Wrichik Basu

    Query runs fine in MySQL, but returns empty list in Python

    I have a database that looks like this: I want to get the "leaderboard position" of a particular member. The idea is to order the data by the score column, and then retrieve the row position of that particular member id. This is my query in MySQL: SET @rowNum := 0; SELECT rowNum FROM(...
  3. S

    Drawing PV diagram from data

    I don't really know how to start here
  4. skaks9

    How do I calculate wheel radius using below data?

    E.motor Power KW 5 Designed HP HP 6.702412869 Required HP HP 6.093102608 Service factor 1.1 Pump rpm RPM 1500 Pressure PSI 1500 Mechanical efficiency 85% voluertric efficency 85% Discharge of Pump GPM 4.856333333 LPM 18.38322143 cc/rev 12.25548095 Calculated Discharge cc/rev 12.25414778 no...
  5. M

    I Data collected from different devices: how to combine for analysis?

    Hi Everyone, I'm working on a project where I have current values from three different devices when there is no arc and an arc generated by an arc generator. When I plot them, they all look different since the data is from different devices. Is there anything I can do to make them comparable...
  6. maistral

    Tabulation of physical and chemical data

    Hi! I would like to crowdsource where can I find a large tabulation of physical and chemical data (ie. density, enthalpy and entropy; for both single-phase and saturated phases) for different fluids; preferrably for alcohols and acids. What I'm trying to look for is something similar to...
  7. L

    Where can I find a topographer to ask about latest data on regional...

    Who can I find that I can ask questions to regarding the topography of a region in the United States? I am particularly interested in if it is known what the land's shapes were prior to roads, buildings, etc?
  8. E

    Cooling Water in Hard Soil: Data and Questions

    Here’s the data is can supply. Water temperature entering ~51°C. desired water exit temperature ~38-40°C Water flow ~approx. 300L/min. Pipe Inside Dia.- 51mm Pipe Material- HDPE PN16 We would bury the pipe around 1 meter deep. Deeper is not feasible as the trenches would be hand dug in an area...
  9. FactChecker

    What analysis was done on Mike Lindell's election data?

    Mike Lindell offered a 5 million $ challenge to anyone who could prove that his election data was false. A computer expert won an arbitration decision that he had proven it. He thought that it would take a long time, or be impossible, but he says that it did not take long at all. Does anyone...
  10. C

    Finding Absolute Uncertainty in Data

    For this data, I am trying to find the overall absolute uncertainty of NA, where NA is the numerical aperture: ##\tan \theta_{NA} = \frac{R}{L}## and ##NA = \sin \theta_{NA}## Case R(cm) L(cm) R/L theta_NA[rad] NA error in NA R0,L0 0.5 0.5 1 0.785398163 0.707106781 0 Rmax,Lmax 0.7...
  11. shivajikobardan

    Best courses to learn Data Structures and Algorithms in C/C++/JS

    Do you know any such good resources? I want to improve my problem solving skills. I also want to practice competitive programming, so any good courses for that? I want to practice pointers any good courses for that?
  12. ohwilleke

    B How many astronomers use JWST data?

    I'm looking for a ballpark estimate of the number of astronomers who directly use raw James Webb Space Telescope data, in part, to be able to compare it to the number of scientists using data from other telescopes and scientific experiments.
  13. B

    Python FineTune the Pixel2Style2Pixel model with my custom data set

    I want to fine-tune the Pixel2Style2Pixel model with my custom data set, but I keep getting an error when I'm trying to load in the pre-train weights. Here is my code : # Load the pre-trained model os.chdir("/content/pixel2style2pixel") from models.psp import pSp config = { "lr": 0.0001...
  14. Feynstein100

    B How is the harmonic mean affected by additional data points?

    We have a collection of 8 discrete data points. They are: 10, 20, 30, 20, 30, 40, 30, 40 In increasing order: 10, 20*2, 30*3, 40*2 The harmonic mean of this data series is 22.86 I read on Wikipedia that the harmonic mean is skewed towards the smaller values i.e. smaller values will affect the...
  15. A

    A Interpreting SDSS extragalactic data in the era of JWST

    • CERN talk : indico.cern.ch/event/1153372/contributions/5200955/ • Presentation materials : bit.ly/MAGIC23AMayer • CERN MAGIC23 : indico.cern.ch/event/1153372/ Talk Description (Abstract) We present empirical evidence from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), including...
  16. Leo Liu

    How to take the double integral of a data set with respect to time

    Question: Suppose I have a data file for the acceleration of an object after every ## \Delta t_i##, how do I obtain the displacement of it? Context: Integral in a PID loop, although not exactly what I am asking as one is sum of error: $$\int_0^T \int_0^T \ddot {\vec \theta(t)}dtdt$$ the other...
  17. bakerjay

    A Data on galaxy rotation curves vs visible matter

    I'm after some raw data for testing theories of dark matter in galaxies. Basically what I want is table showing visible mass vs total mass within different radii (or, observed rotational velocity vs expected rotational velocity without dark matter). Plus error percentages. And ideally, for...
  18. gleem

    I Massive galaxies during the early Universe, new JWST data

    As of now, it appears the ΛCDM can accommodate this new data but new data is needed to be sure. https://www.quantamagazine.org/standard-model-of-cosmology-survives-jwsts-surprising-finds-20230120/
  19. MarkTheQuark

    Circuit equivalent for fitting my data

    I did a few experiments recently of impedance spectroscopy, and I've gathered some data that i'm having some issues to find an equivalent circuit that can fit the data. The equivalent circuit that I've got, it's pretty similar with the data (graph and circuit below) But the problem is, at low...
  20. T

    B What is the best source for this star data? (M44 Beehive Cluster)

    Hi I need the below data for the thousand or so stars in M44 the Beehive Cluster. What would be the easiest way to get this data? Thank you. RA, Dec, distance, apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, spectrum
  21. jack action

    Can you restore data from a deleted file that was previously emptied?

    Say you have a large text file on your hard drive that you edit such that its content is fully erased and you save it that way. Then you delete the file. Is the content still on the hard drive? Usually, deleting a file only deletes the address where the file is on the hard drive and the content...
  22. gjleigh10

    How to read a column of data into Fortran without arrays? (Fortran 77)

    TL;DR Summary: I am beginning research as an undergrad in Physics and have an example file I must analyze for the mean of each column. I cannot use arrays. I need to take the sum of a column of data. Hi all, I am new to fortran and programming in general, but I'm having issues with creating a...
  23. sophiecentaur

    Opinions about the usefulness or otherwise of data synching services

    Along with a lot of other people, I chose to use Apple iCloud without thinking too much about what it can do for me. iCloud offers Synching and I pay £6 pm for 2TB of storage. iCloud gives synching on your boot drive and you can only use the remaining space with zip files. But is Synch actually...
  24. Dario56

    How to Determine the Unit Cell Type From the XRD Data?

    Hey guys, I got an XRD data for my sample and want to determine its density. This requires finding lattice parameters. However, I'm not certain about the crystallographic system of my sample. How can I determine the type of the unit cell my sample has from XRD data (I can use GSAS II if...
  25. D

    I Smoothing algorithm for real-world data

    Hi 🙂 I'd appreciate your help. I have a bunch of livestock with an ear sensor on each, that sends me data about how much heat is going out of the ear. I wanna take this data from each livestock and smooth it. My question is, how to know which smoothing algorithm I should use to get an...
  26. ForTheLoveOfPhysics

    B Data needed - Related bodies and their stats

    I’m analysing the gravitational relationships between different mass astronomical bodies and am getting sick of having to individually google and document these. Are there data sets out there that list pairs/sets of objects which includes their mass and distance from each other? Including...
  27. physicsclaus

    How to calculate dark count from data collected?

    Hello everyone, I am trying to measure the dark count from a measurement a SPDC source. Although I collected data from the signal generator, I do not know how to obtain dark count rates per second. I only know the following definition Dark counts refer to the tiny amount of DC current in the...
  28. P

    Physics Looking to transition from data science to computational physics

    In my late twenties, currently working as a data scientist in the UK, looking to sit A level maths, further maths and physics as a private candidate (not going through a distance learning provider) and pursue a joint degree in physics and computer science (which I know both St Andrews and...
  29. Leo Liu

    Mathematica [Mathematica] How to use for loop to process a list of data

    Hi. I am writing a program in Mathematica that reads a xsl file from excel, then processes it by solving an equation, and lastly turns the processed data into a list for exporting. Context: Finding the maximum speed of a model plane at different altitudes (density). Screenshots of the code and...
  30. A

    I Analysis of data from previous experiments

    Has it ever happened that after a discovery, data from previous experiments were analyzed and it was noticed that there was already some evidence of the phenomenon in question?
  31. R

    Admissions Should I say I'm a full-time data scientist and physics student in my SOP?

    Is it a good or bad idea to mention that I am a full-time physics student while simultaneously a full-time data scientist employee while doing physics research too in my SOP for grad school? Is it seen as too confident or bragging? Or it helps me to say this? Does it make it sound bad if I...
  32. A

    I What do the Roman Numerals mean in Spectroscopic Data?

    A basic question. Looking at the NIST spectroscopic data, what exactly is, for example, Ar I vs Ar II vs Ar III? If Ar I is unionised Argon, then is Ar II an Ar- ion or an Ar+ ion? (and whichever way around it works, how do we denote the opposite ionisation? If they are all ionized, is there...
  33. G

    I Data Showing Dark Matter Is Not Cold Neutrinos?

    How do we know that cold neutrinos do not make up 100% or a large percentage of the dark matter content in the universe? In my mind, the only way to prove that dark matter is not simply cold neutrinos would be to measure the density of cold neutrinos in the universe and then calculate the...
  34. shivajikobardan

    Comp Sci Data sharing in traditional file system vs dbms?

    I know data is decentralized in TFS. But how does that makes data sharing difficult? We've got distributed computing for the similar purpose on different machines as well. I read a lot on this but failed to find any information regarding why it was not possible to share data in TFS as compared...
  35. Sciencemaster

    I Database of binary star data info within 10 PC of Earth

    I'm looking for a database of binary stars within 10 PC of Earth, including information such as eccentricity of orbits, their distance from one another, etc. I'm hoping to find a list with this information, or just a collection of pages with this information. I've tried Simbad but I can't find...
  36. kyphysics

    Computing for Dummies Q: What is difference between server and data center?

    I've been looking this up and don't seem to have a great understanding. Can someone confirm or correct that my understanding is accurate. Is a data center simply a large collection of individual servers? If not, how do they differ? Thanks.
  37. S

    Mathematica Understanding the Code: How to Extract Data from a Plot in Mathematica

    An answer posted here... https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/19859/plot-extract-data-to-a-file ... says you can extract the data from a Plot by doing this: data = Cases[Plot[Sin@x, {x, 0, 2 Pi}], Line[data_] :> data, -4, 1][[1]]; Having looked at the doc page on Cases, I can't...
  38. Feynstein100

    I Is there a way to calculate expected value from probabilistic data?

    So I ran a python simulation of 1,000 games of toss (50/50 odds) where each game consists of 100,000 consecutive flips. The result was this: 1000 is our starting balance and as expected, there's a nice normal distribution around it. I also calculated the average value after all the games and it...
  39. B

    A Quantifying nonlinearity from data

    Hello! I have a function of the form: $$y = ax + b + f(x)$$ and I can measure experimentally only x and y. I also know that ##f(x)<<ax,b##, where ##f(x)## is some non-linearity in x i.e. it can't be absorbed into the ##ax+b## part (for example ##f(x) = cx^2##), but I don't know its form. Is...
  40. person123

    Where can I find a PVT table for water for a 3-D webapp?

    I'm looking to create a little webapp where the user can see the 3-D PVT phase diagram, giving the user functionality like orbiting the surface and moving a point along the surface. (I attached an image of the surface I'm referring to). To do that, though, I would need the data defining the PVT...
  41. B

    I Filling in Missing Values in a string of data

    hello, I’m trying to figure out if I’m doing this correctly or if there’s a different way that I should be finding a missing value. I’m trending data for an automatic transformer. Every month I collect the operations counter value and at the end of the year sum the number of tap changes...
  42. shivajikobardan

    Comp Sci Data Encryption Standard Confusion

    First I'll give some context about how the book's written as many books are presenting it in different ways. Reference: CRYPTOGRAPHY AND INFORMATION SECURITY, THIRD EDITION By PACHGHARE, V. K. Confusions: 1) Why is Expansion Permutation called so? The name sounds very contrary to what...
  43. P

    Data transformations: When do you know to stop?

    I'm running raw data and although, visually, the trends are promising, none of it is statistically significant. I was just going to leave it at that because the data was obtained after only 1 year of the experiment and I was just going to say that if treatment continued for a longer period of...
  44. M

    I Approximate new acorrelation given previous acorrelation and a new set of data?

    Hi PF! The autocorrelation coefficient ##\rho## is defined as $$\rho_k \equiv \frac{\sum_{t=k+1}^T (x_t - \bar x)(x_{t-k} - \bar x)}{\sum_{t=1}^T(x_t-\bar x)^2}$$ Now suppose we calculate ##\rho## through ##T##, but are then given a new data at time ##T + \Delta t##. Is there a way to...
  45. shivajikobardan

    Comp Sci Please give me an example of how any indexing works in big data search

    [Mentor Note -- PF thread and MHB threads merged together below due to MHB forum merger with PF] I have to learn in context of lucene, but firstly, I want to learn the example indexing in general. Sth like this-: And I am not getting any google books and pdfs to learn about these topics. I...
  46. Arman777

    Creating a grid type 3D data array from data points

    I have a 3 data column ##(X, Y, Z)## ranges from ##(min, max)##. For example, ##X = (0, 5)##, ##Y=(0, 3)##, ##Z=(0, 2)##. By using them I need to create a numpy array in the form of ##[(0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 1), (0, 0, 2), (0, 1, 0), (0, 1, 1), (0, 1, 2), (0, 2, 0)...]## So in total there will be...
  47. S

    Google docs etc: is the data transfer secure?

    This video ... ... At around 01:26 they say that data to and from the Google apps server goes across unencrypted. Is that true, given that all these services are necessarily over HTTPS ? On a related note, does a VPN layer add any value in terms of data security, above that provided by HTTPS ?
  48. DaveC426913

    Tornado path visualization - what is this data?

    Does anyone have a clue what the gold points and associated lines represent? I notice that all the gold lines form closed loops (so they're not travel paths) and they cross themselves (so they're not contours). I can't think of any type of data that would result in this. I've tried to follow...
  49. M

    MATLAB Can't get tutorial to work with new data

    Hi PF! I'm going through a backtracking tutorial here. That code runs well for me, and is below: %% LOAD DATA % Read a table of daily adjusted close prices for 2006 DJIA stocks. T = readtable('dowPortfolio.xlsx'); % For readability, use only 15 of the 30 DJI component stocks. assetSymbols =...
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