Degrees of Freedom

Degrees of freedom can mean:

  • Degrees of freedom (mechanics), independent displacements and/or rotations that specify the orientation of the body or system
  • Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry), a term used in explaining dependence on parameters, or the dimensions of a phase space
  • Degrees of freedom (statistics), the number of values in the final calculation of a statistic that are free to vary

Famous quotes containing the words degrees of, degrees and/or freedom:

    Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men’s faces or their humors do.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    The political truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees the character of fundamental maxims of free Government, and as they become incorporated with national sentiment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion.
    James Madison (1751–1836)

    There is an untroubled harmony in everything, a full consonance in nature; only in our illusory freedom do we feel at variance with it.
    Fyodor Tyutchev (1803–1873)