Question

• Explain the difference between the terms “variable” and “data.” Include an illustration that demonstrates this difference.
• For Q2 Recall:
  • “Illustration” = “Example”

Answer 1

ANSWER:

Difference between data and variable.

Data is a central part of any statistical analysis. Whenever we wish to find out more about a particular process or some phenomenon, we use data. Data could be anything from the set of names of the students in the class to the average number of marks obtained by the students.

Usually we collect or compute several measures about each person or a thing of interest. Each entity for which the data is collected is called an observation. Variables on the other hand are the various measures recorded against each of the observation.

This could be shown from the following table:

The data stored in the above format is called a spreadsheet (like an excel spreadsheet) or a database. Each row in the above table corresponds to an observation while each column corresponds to a variable or an attribute.