First, we need to know what an independent variable is. Independent variable means that the occurrence of an event is not affected by other events. For example, coin toss, heads up or tails up are two independent events because there is no interaction between them.
In statistics, degrees of freedom are used to measure the number of variables that can be changed independently in statistical models. For example, in the linear regression model, we have independent variables (such as height and weight) and dependent variables (such as blood pressure). In this model, we can change the value of the independent variable independently without affecting the value of the dependent variable. Therefore, the degree of freedom of this model is 1.
However, in some cases, we need to consider the correlation between multiple independent variables. For example, in the multiple linear regression model, we may have multiple independent variables (such as height, weight, age, etc. ), and there may be correlation between these independent variables. In this case, we cannot change the value of each independent variable independently, because changing the value of one independent variable may affect the values of other independent variables. Therefore, the degree of freedom of this model is less than 1.
In a word, degree of freedom is a concept to measure the number of variables that can be changed independently in a statistical model. In mathematics, the concept of freedom can help us better understand and analyze data, so as to make more accurate predictions and decisions.