DEGREES OF FREEDOM

Degrees oI Ireedom are the number oI values that are Iree to vary aIter a sample statistic has
been computed, and they tell the researcher which speciIic curve to use when a distribution
consists oI a Iamily oI curves.
For example, iI the mean oI 5 values is 10, then 4 oI the 5 values are Iree to vary. But once 4
values are selected, the IiIth value must be a speciIic number to get a sum oI 50, since 50
10. Hence, the degrees oI Ireedom are 5 1 4, and this values tells the researcher which 9 curve
to use.
The symbol d.I. will be used Ior degrees oI Ireedom. The degrees oI Ireedom Ior a conIidence
interval Ior the mean are Iound by subtracting 1 Irom the sample size. That is, d.I. n 1.
In general, the degrees oI Ireedom represent the number oI independent values in a calculation,
minus the number oI estimated parameters.In analysis oI variance, degrees oI Ireedom are used
to calculate the mean squares Irom the sum oI squares.

STANDARD ERROR
The term "standard error" is used to reIer to the standard deviation oI various sample statistics
such as the mean or median. For example, the "standard error oI the mean" reIers to the standard
deviation oI the distribution oI sample means taken Irom a population. For more complicated
statistics, the standard error is also more complicated.
The smaller the standard error, the more representative the sample will be oI the overall
population. The standard error is also inversely proportional to the sample size; the larger the
sample size, the smaller the standard error because the statistic will approach the actual value.
There are two ways to use the standard error. First, the statistic divided by the standard error
gives a way oI testing whether the parameter that the statistic is estimating equals zero. Compare
this ratio to a t-distribution. In most contexts, the ratio oI the statistic divided by its standard
error is called a Wald test. For many simple applications, it can also call as a t-test.
second application oI the standard error is the production oI conIidence intervals. By this way,
we can get a crude conIidence interval by taking the statistic plus or minus two standard errors.
more precise conIidence interval would use percentiles Irom the t-distribution.
There are a lot oI subtleties in the use oI the standard error, especially in more complex
problems. Sometimes, Ior example, the standard error applies not to the statistic itselI, but to the
logarithm oI that statistic. For example, a logistic regression model will compute an odds ratio
Ior the data, but the standard error reIers not to the odds ratio, but to the log odds ratio. In this
situation, we need to compute the conIidence interval on the log scale and then transIorm the
results back to the original scale oI measurement.
Example oI standard error is standard error oI the mean :