Glossary · lab
Degrees of freedom
The number of independent values in a statistic. For a chi-square test on 37 pockets it is 36, because the counts must add up to the total.
In context
The chi-square distribution you compare against depends on this number; with df = 36 the 5% critical value is 51.0.
Did you know
A fair wheel produces a chi-square statistic of about 36 on average, equal to the degrees of freedom. A value near 36 is the most ordinary result possible.