Degrees of freedom (DF) in statistics refer to the number of independent values that can vary in an analysis without breaking any constraints. It is a fundamental concept in statistical analysis, indicating the amount of independent information available to estimate statistical parameters. The typical symbol for degrees of freedom is ν (lowercase Greek letter nu), and it is commonly represented by "DF" or "d.f." in text and tables. In equations, the formula for degrees of freedom is often represented as DF = N - P, where N is the sample size and P is the number of parameters being estimated. Essentially, degrees of freedom represent the balance between the amount of information available and the number of parameters that can be estimated in a statistical analysis).
In a nutshell, degrees of freedom are crucial for various statistical analyses, including hypothesis testing, regression, and other modeling techniques, as they define the amount of independent data available to estimate parameters and perform statistical tests.
