Data
&
Analysis

Now humans use numbers to collect data about things,

and data is not the same as information.

Data is what can be named and numbered.

It has to have hard edges of some kind,

not like emotions.

Love and sorrow can't be compared by numbers.

If someone is sad you can know they are sad,

but it doesn't have a scale by which you can measure it

compared to someone else's sadness.

A person can sort of measure their own sadness

against however sad they have been before,

and say they are very sad, or not very sad,

or where they would put it on a line between happy and sad,

but you can only guess at what someone else is feeling.

Data is numbers about things that have a name,

the names are of those things you are interested in,

and the numbers are how you measure them,

and if you want a useful answer it is important first of all

to work out exactly what you want to know.

You have to organise your thoughts before you start,

so then you can collect the data you actually need.

You have a list of things

and then the values for what you know about them,

then you can decide on the best way to look at the data, or show it.

A common way people display data

is using a simple grid or database,

because they can put the things they are studying in a list,

and if they know different stuff about those things

they can put those values alongside in a different column,

and they will talk of that kind of database as having rows and columns.

But rows and columns

are not always the best way to look at data to understand it.

Some data is best just left in a grid, or chart,

like bus or train timetables,

but you can use column charts,

which are good for comparing the numbers for different things,

and sometimes people will switch the data columns

to running sideways along the rows if that seems better.

Or there's line graphs

which are good for showing numbers changing over time,

or pie charts which are for showing proportions of things,

how they are shared around.

Or there are charts that show information about the relationship between things,

like distance charts,

or charts that use groups of pictures

showing the numbers, in a way that's just for fun.

And by looking at the data in this way

it is easier to see what is the biggest or smallest,

or when things will happen.

It's possible to see rhythms and trends,

and estimate values that are missing from the data,

even in data that seems to be wildly different,

like using scatter graphs.

You can see how things are related,

ways they are different

and ways they are the same.

You can get extra information by analysis.

But the data being used depends on

the question being asked in the first place,

as the way a question is asked can confuse people,

or encourage them to answer in a certain way,

and then the data will end up answering the question that was asked,

but not necessarily the question which really needed to be answered.

People who program computers

soon learn the rule they call GIGO,

Garbage-In Garbage-Out,

and muslims know that they need to think of their way of life

in much the same way.

What they get out of it, during this life

and after it is over,

depends on what they put in.