Description: Degrees of freedom refer to the number of independent values or quantities that can be assigned to a statistical distribution. This concept is fundamental in statistics as it helps to understand the amount of information that can be extracted from a dataset. In simple terms, degrees of freedom are the number of observations that are free to vary without violating any constraints imposed on the analysis. For example, in a dataset with ‘n’ observations, if the mean is calculated, only ‘n-1’ of those observations can vary freely, as the last observation is determined by the mean and the other ‘n-1’ observations. This principle is crucial in parameter estimation and hypothesis testing, where degrees of freedom influence the shape of the probability distribution used to infer results. In summary, degrees of freedom are a measure of the information available for making statistical inferences and are essential for the validity of results obtained in data analysis.
