Data Is Information
Data is any recorded information. Every time you check the weather, count something, or measure your height, you are working with data. Data scientists turn raw data into useful knowledge.
🆕Data Is Everywhere
Your phone generates data every second: location, steps, app usage. Netflix collects data on what you watch. Weather stations collect temperature every minute. There is more data created every day than existed in all of human history before 2000!
Quantitative vs Categorical
Quantitative data is numbers you can do math with: temperature, score, height, age. Categorical data is labels or groups: color, city, grade level, favorite food. Knowing the difference tells you which analysis and which chart to use.
- Quantitative: 72°F, 95 points, 5.4 feet
- Categorical: "red", "Tulsa", "Grade 7"
The Data Pipeline
Real data scientists follow these steps every time: Collect data → Clean errors and missing values → Analyze (statistics, patterns) → Visualize (charts) → Communicate findings. This course teaches each step.