Definition of 'Degrees Of Freedom'
In statistics, the number of values in a study that are free to vary. For example, if you have to take ten different courses to graduate, and only ten different courses are offered, then you have nine degrees of freedom. Nine semesters you will be able to choose which class to take; the tenth semester, there will only be one class left to take - there is no choice, if you want to graduate.
Degrees of freedom are commonly discussed in relation to chi-square and other forms of hypothesis testing statistics. It is important to calculate the degree(s) of freedom when determining the significance of a chi square statistic and the validity of the null hypothesis.
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