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)

    No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else be incontinent before marriage.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    What most clearly characterizes true freedom and its true employment is its misemployment.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)