Data and Information for Computers
What data is: information that computers use — numbers, words, pictures, sounds; everything a computer knows comes from data that people give it
What a learner can do afterwards
- Define data as information stored in a computer (numbers, text, images, sounds)
- Give at least three examples of data they create every day (photos, messages, search queries)
- Explain that a computer only knows what it has been given — it has no knowledge of its own
The lesson
A computer cannot think on its own. It only knows what people give it. That information is called data. Data can be numbers, words, pictures, or sounds.
When you take a photo on a phone, that photo is data. When you type a message, the words are data. When you search for a video, your search words are data too.
If a computer has never been given a piece of data, it does not know it. A computer that never got a photo of a cat cannot tell you what a cat looks like.
Data is information like numbers, words, pictures, and sounds that people give to computers, and a computer only knows what it has been given.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.