Data and Information

Data is bits of stuff, like numbers or characters. When data is stored in a computer it is meaningless. A list of numbers like 7,8,9,10,11,12 do not have meaning or application.

It is basically raw facts and figures.

Information is processed data. It has meaning. That same list of number 7,8,9,10,11,12 has meaning when it is in a list called Shoe Sizes. Suddenly that data is no longer raw facts, but has a purpose.

So information is data that has been processed to give meaning to the person looking at it.

Knowledge is an  understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through education by perceiving, discovering, or learning.

Once Information is digested by an individual they learn from it, and therefore retain the knowledge of that give piece of information.

If you get a shock from a wire, you learn from that experience have have the knowledge not to touch the wire again.

When it come to the storage of data on a computer, it can take up varying amounts of space based on its complexity. To measure the stroage space on a storage medium we use the following size measurements. This list is also a small snippet of the available sizes:

• Byte – 8 bits
• Kilobyte (KB) – 1024 bytes (or 1024 x 8 bits)
• Megabyte (MB) – 1024 kilobytes (or 1048576 bytes)
• Gigabyte (GB) – 1024 megabytes
• Terabyte (TB) – 1024 gigabytes

Most computers can process millions of bits per second when doing calculations.As an example of storage space require to store data the table below shows various file types and average storage requirements:

Data	Storage
One extended-ASCII character in a text file (eg ‘A’)	1 byte
The word ‘Monday’ in a document	6 bytes
A plain-text email	2 KB
64 pixel x 64 pixel GIF	12 KB
Hi-res 2000 x 2000 pixel RAW photo	11.4 MB
Three minute MP3 audio file	3 MB
One minute uncompressed WAV audio file	15 MB
One hour film compressed as MPEG4	4 GB

 

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