What is degree of freedom, and what does it signify? What is the real interpretation of the degree of freedom?

Question

Accepted Answer

Degree of freedom represents the number of independent values or quantities which can be assigned to a statistical distribution.

Degree of freedom is the number of values in the final calculation of a statistic that are free to vary.
In simple terms, it signifies the number of independent pieces of information available to estimate a parameter.
For example, in a t-test, the degree of freedom is n-1, where n is the sample size.
In ANOVA, the degree of freedom for between groups is k-1 and for within groups is n-k, where k is the number of groups and n is the total sample size.

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