X-Nico

unusual facts about datum



Data

The word data is the traditional plural form of the now-archaic datum, neuter past participle of the Latin dare, "to give", hence "something given".

In one sense, datum is a count noun with the plural datums (see usage in datum article) that can be used with cardinal numbers (e.g. "80 datums"); data (originally a Latin plural) is not used like a normal count noun with cardinal numbers and can be plural with such plural determiners as these and many or as a singular abstract mass noun with a verb in the singular form.

ED50

The geodetic datum of ED50 is centred at the Munich Frauenkirche in southern Germany, where the approximate centre of the Western Europe national networks was situated in the years of the cold war.

Ireviken event

It comprises eight extinction "datum points"—the first four being regularly spaced, every 30,797 years, and linked to the Milankovic obliquity cycle.

ODL

Ordnance Datum Liverpool, an ordnance datum recorded at Victoria Dock in Liverpool, England


see also